Hi
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
GEORGE BUCHANAN
A BIOGRAPHY
Edinburgh : Printed by Thomas and Archibald Constable,
FOR
DAVID DOUGLAS.
LONDON . . . SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LTD.
CAMBRIDGE . . MACMILLAN AND BOWES.
GLASGOW . . . JAMES MACLEH08E AND SONS.
Scotia ji cUat&tn kunc aehtlarii t>rodu?cit ad anton,
Creclo cauitl&m adify pvrcaJU&re ^
George Buchanan
HUMANIST AND REFORMER
A Biography
BY P. HUME BROWN
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS
1890
\A II rights reserved. ]
PREFACE.
THE foundation of all the biographies of Buchanan
is a short Latin sketch written two years before his
death — in all probability by himself, at the sug-
gestion of his friends. On this sketch we have two
commentaries, one by Sir Robert Sibbald (1707),
the other by Ruddiman, both of which add a few
details to its somewhat meagre outline. The only
considerable biography of Buchanan is that of Dr.
David Irving, the second and last edition of which
appeared in 1817. The excellent account of
Buchanan in the Dictionary of National Biography,
by Mr. uEneas Mackay, is also deserving of special
mention. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries Buchanan was the subject of interminable
controversies ; but the main sources of our infor-
mation regarding him are those which have just
been named.
The idea of writing a new biography of
Buchanan was seriously entertained both by Sir
Vl PREFACE.
William Hamilton and Mr. James Hannay ; but there
is now a special reason for the work they contem-
plated. Of the seventy-six years of Buchanan's
life, more than thirty were spent abroad ; and this
period of his career has hitherto been all but an
entire blank. Recent histories, however, of the
very institutions with which, during those years,
Buchanan was mainly connected, bring vividly
before us the world in which he moved, as well as
the aims and interests of men of his type during
the sixteenth century. Bead in the light of this
fresh knowledge, his writings acquire an entirely
new interest and significance as the expression of
his character and genius.
As this biography is meant to make Buchanan
known to those who are never likely to read his
two Latin folios, translations have in almost every
case been given of the various passages quoted. It
will be seen that these translations have been made
on two distinct principles. Where only the exact
sense of the passage had to be considered, a closely
literal rendering has been given ; where the tone
and spirit were essential to its appreciation, the
precept of Cowley has been followed, and the
attempt made to reproduce something of " the way
and manner" of the original.
PREFACE. Vll
The accompanying portrait of Buchanan is that
which appears in Boissard's Icones (1597). This
portrait is the one approved by David Laing, who
commissioned Mr. D. W. Stevenson to follow it
in executing the bronze bust in Greyfriars Church-
yard. The Buchanan bust in the Wallace Monu-
ment, at Stirling, by the same artist, is also after
this portrait.
By the kind permission of the Senatus of the
University of St. Andrews a reproduction is given
(in the vignette) of a sketch of St. Leonard's Col-
lege, over which Buchanan presided for some time
as Principal. The original sketch, in the possession
of the University, was made by John Oliphant in
1767, and represents the building as it then stood.
From its ruinous condition it had ceased to be used
as a college twenty years before.
The edition of Buchanan's works to which
reference is made throughout is that of Buddiman,
in two folios (Edin. 1715). In that edition there is
a full bibliography of Buchanan. Editions of his
works that have appeared since 1715 are specified
as the works themselves come up for notice.
I would here take the opportunity of specially
thanking Dr. Dickson of the Register House for
his great kindness on the frequent occasions I have
Vlll PREFACE.
had to consult him. In my search for traces of
Buchanan I also owe much to the courtesy of
M. Tamizey de Larroque, correspondent of the
Institute, of M. Chatelain, librarian at the Sor-
bonne, and of Professor Hagen, of the University
of Berne. To Professor Masson I am indebted for
several valuable suggestions made by him after a
careful perusal of my manuscript; and I have to
thank Mr. E. C. Christie, author of Etienne Dolet,
a Biography, for information which, from his
special knowledge of the sixteenth century, he
alone, perhaps, could have supplied. My specific
obligations to certain other gentlemen I have
acknowledged in the proper place.
P. HUME BROWN.
April 1890.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION.
1506-1520.
PAGE
Buchanan's great reputation in his own day, ... 1
His reputation on the Continent, ..... 2
„ „ in England, ..... 2
„ „ in Scotland, ..... 3
Birthplace, ....... 4
The Clan Buchanan, ...... 5
Buchanan's ancestry, ...... 6
His connection with the House of Lennox, ... 7
A Celt by his father's descent, ..... 8
His mother's ancestry, ...... 9
Buchanan's early acquaintance with poverty, . . .11
Probable places where he received his early education, . . 12
Sent to University of Paris by his uncle, . . . .13
His opinion of his native district, . . . . .14
CHAPTER II.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM IN PARIS—
BUCHANAN'S FIRST STUDIES THERE.
1520-1522.
The University of Paris at the opening of the sixteenth century, 15
Its opposition to the Renaissance, . . . .16
The work of Lefevre d'Etaples, . . . . .18
Luther's opinions in the University, 7 . . .20
The Sorbonne, . . . . . . .21
Francis i.'s attitude towards the new studies, . . .22
Religious reform in France, . . . . .23
Scots students at University of Paris, . . 24
x CONTENTS.
PAGE
Character of University students, . . . .28
Curriculum of study in Paris, . . . . .29
The various modes of living at the University, . . 30
Buchanan's early studies, ...... 31
Result of his training in Latin verse, . . . .32
Returns to Scotland, . • . . . . .33
CHAPTER III.
MILITARY EXPEDITION — STUDIES AT ST. ANDREWS.
1522-1526.
Buchanan serves in an expedition to the Border, . . 34
Mutual relations of the Medieval Universities, . . . .38
John Major, his life and writings, . . . .38
Buchanan enters the University of St. Andrews, . . .41
The Paedagogium of St. Andrews, . . . .41
The Humanists and Major, . . . .43
Scholasticism, . . . . . . .44
Buchanan graduates as Bachelor of Arts, . . .46
CHAP TEE IV.
PARIS — THE SOOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE.
1526-1535.
Buchanan returns to Paris, ..... 47
The Scots College, ..... 48
Buchanan's obligation to Major, . ... . .48
Life in the Paris College?, . . . . .49
Buchanan becomes Regent in Ste. Barbe, . . .50
Account of Ste. Barbe, . . . . .50
Buchanan's account of his duties as Regent, . . .56
Habits of the students in Paris, . . . . .58
CHAPTER V.
REGENT IN SAINTE-BARBE AND PROCURATOR OF THE
GERMAN NATION.
Liberal opinions in Ste. Barbe, . . . . .60
" Calvin and Buchanan, ...... 61
CONTENTS. XI
PAOE
Ignatius Loyola at Ste. Barbe, . . . . .62
Opposition to the new studies in Paris, . . . .63
Latin Grammars, ....... 64
Buchanan translates Linacre's Latin Grammar, . . .65
State of opinion in the University of Paris, . . .67
Brigonnet, Bishop of Meaux, ..... 67
Louis de Berquin, ....... 68
Guillaume Bude\ ....... 68
Noel Beda, . . . . . . . • . 69
Buchanan's Epigram on Major, . . . . .70
Florence Wilson, . . . . . . .71
Buchanan's Religious Opinions, . . . . .74
His Epigram on a Member of the Sorbonne, . . .75
Made Procurator of the German Nation, . . . .76
: Origin of the University " Nations," . . . . .76
Duties of Procurator, ...... 77
Buchanan's attack on Kobert Dugast, . . . .78
Buchanan made one of the Electors of the Eector, . . 79
His natural unfitness for the post of Regent, . . .80
Wandering habits of the Renaissance scholars, . . .81
Buchanan becomes Tutor to the Earl of Cassillis, . . .81
Reference to Cassillis in Buchanan's History, . . .83
CHAPTER VI.
SCOTLAND — QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS.
1535-1539.
Buchanan's return to Scotland, . . . . .84
State of the Church in Scotland, . . . . .86
Somnium, ........ 89
Tutor to Lord James Stewart, . . . . .91
Palinodia, ....... 93
Franciscanus, . . . . . . . .95
The legitimacy of its Satire, - .= ~^T - . .96
Its coarseness relative, ...... 99
Buchanan's flight to England, . . . . .100
His Poems to Cromwell and Henry vin., .... 101
His return to France, ...... 102
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
BORDEAUX.
1539-1542.
PACT
Buchanan's attachment to France, .... 103
Leaves Paris on account of Cardinal Beaton, . . . 104
Is appointed Regent in the College de Guyenne, Bordeaux, . 105
Educational problems of the sixteenth century, . . . 106
Internal arrangements of the College de Guyenne, . . 108
Montaigne a pupil of Buchanan, . . . . .111
Montaigne's references to his teacher, . . . .112
Julius Caesar Scaliger, . . . . . . . 113
Buchanan's visits to him, . . . . . .114
Joseph Scaliger, . . . . . . .115
CHAPTEK VIII.
BORDEAUX — OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES.
Buchanan's position in the College de Guyenne, . . .116
His Poem to the Emperor Charles v., . . .117
Satire on the Brothers of St. Anthony, . . . .118
Apologia pro Lena, . . . . . .119
Latin Plays at the College de Guyenne, . . . .120
Buchanan's Dramas, . . . . . .121
Saptistes, ....... 122
Religious reform in Bordeaux, . . . . .123
- Political ideas in Baptistes, . . . . .124
Buchanan leaves Bordeaux, . . . . .125
CHAPTER IX.
PARIS— PORTUGAL.
1542-1552.
Buchanan again in Paris, . . . . . .126
Regent in the College du Cardinal Lemoine, . . .127
Poem addressed to his friends in Bordeaux, . . . 127
Buchanan accompanies Gouv6a to Portugal, . . .130
Account of the College at Coimbra, . . . .131
Persecution of Buchanan, . . . . . 133
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER X.
EROTIC VERSES AND PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS.
PAGE
Artificial character of the Humanist Literature, . . . 135
The erotic verse of Beza, . . . . . . .137
Buchanan's erotic verse, . . . . . .139
The fashion of paraphrasing the Psalms, .... 141
Marcantonio Flaminio, ...... 142
Henri Estienne, . . ... . . .143
Buchanan's version of the Psalms, . . . .145
CHAPTER XI.
FRANCE — ENGAGEMENT WITH THE MARECHAL DE BRISSAC.
1552-1561.
Buchanan returns to France, . . . . .150
State of France under Henry II., . . . . .151
Buchanan's Address to France, ..... 152
His intimacy with Mellin de Saint-Gelais, . . .153
The Marechal de Brissac, ...... 155
His son the pupil of Buchanan, ..... 158
De Brissac's esteem for Buchanan, . . . .159
Buchanan's growing interest in religion, . . . .160
CHAPTER XII.
THE DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS.
Keasons for Buchanan's choosing the Sphere as the subject of a
a great poem, ...... 162
Joannes de Sacrobosco, . . . . . .164
The teaching of Copernicus, . . . . . 165
Account of Buchanan's De Sphaera, . . . .166
Poem on the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin, 171
His Poem on the death of Mary's husband, . . . 175
Poem on the First of May, ... .177
XIV CONTENTS.
»
CHAPTER XIII.
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT.
1561-1567.
PAGE
Buchanan's employments on his return to Scotland, . .180
His relation to Mary, ...... 181
His personal appearance, ...... 181
Buchanan and the Court, ...... 183
Epigram to Mary, . . . . . .184
Poet-Laureate of the Court, . . . . .185
His sources of income, . . . . . .186
" Pensionary " of Crossraguel, ..... 187
Other epigrams to Mary, . . . . . .189
^Identifies himself with the Reformers, .... 190
Relations with the Regent Moray, . . . .191
Buchanan and Darnley, . . . . . .193
Buchanan and Knox, ...... 194
Buchanan and Mary, . . . . . .195
Poem on the birth of James vi., . .... 196
CHAPTER XIV.
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS.
~~~Buchanan's change of feeling towards Mary, . . . 200
Charges brought against him by her advocates, . . . 201
His exact obligation to her, ..... 202
Meaning of his panegyrics of Mary, .... 203
Reasons for his change of attitude towards Mary, . . 204
Accompanies Moray to England, ..... 208
The Detectio distinct from the Book of Articles, . . . 209
Account of the Detectio, . . . . . .211
Buchanan in London, ...... 216
[is vernacular writings, . . . . . .217
The Admonitioun, . . . . . .218
The Chamaeleon, ....... 219
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XV.
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.
PAGE
Buchanan consulted in all educational schemes, . . . 226
Foundation of St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, . . 227
Effect of the Reformation on the Universities, . . . 229
State of learning in the Scottish Universities, . . . 230
Educational schemes of the Reformers, .... 232
_^JBuchanan's plan of University Reform, .... 237
Plan attributed to Andrew Melville, .... 239
Buchanan as Principal of St. Leonard's, .... 241
His interest in Glasgow College, . . . . . 242
His sympathy with the young, ..... 244
Jerome Groslot, ....... 245
Alexander Cockburn, ...... 246
The Admirable Crichton, ...... 247
CHAPTER XVI.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES — PUBLIC LIFE.
Death of the Regent Moray, ..... 249
Buchanan appointed tutor to James, .... 250
Plan of study, ....... 252
His bearing towards James, ...... 256
James in the schoolroom, ...... 257
Anecdotes, . . . . . . . 258
The result of Buchanan's influence on James, . . . 260
Buchanan's political importance as James's tutor, . . 261
His public life, ....... 263
CHAPTER XVII.
POLITICAL OPINIONS — THE DE JURE REGNI APUD SCOTOS.
Buchanan's political writings suppressed by Government, . 269
Sketch of political opinion in Europe —
a. In the Middle Ages, ..... 272
6. In the Sixteenth Century, .... 276
xvi CONTENTS.
PAOE
Calvin's Institutes, ...... 278
Political opinion in Scotland — Major — Boece, . . . 280
Knox and Mary, ....... 282
The De Jure Eegni, . . . . . .283
CHAPTER XVIII.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Buchanan's History of Scotland his most ambitious work, . 293
His motives in writing it, ..... 294
The spirit in which it was written, .... 297
Not a philosophical historian, ..... 298
His description of the Western Islanders, . . . 300
His treatment of legendary history of Scotland, . . . 302
His account of the different peoples of Scotland, . . . 303
Accepts the legendary kings of Scotland, .... 305
The Culdees, ....... 307
The suzerainty of England over Scotland, . . . 311
His character of Wallace, ...... 312
His character of Bruce, ...... 312
English writers on Scottish history, .... 314
Speech of Bishop Kennedy, . . . . .316
Buchanan's history from the reign of James iv., . . . 317
Sir David Lyndsay, . . . . . .318
Battle of Flodden, ....... 319
Value of Buchanan's History for first half of sixteenth century, . 320
Cardinal Beaton, ....... 321
Place of Knox in Buchanan's History, .... 323
Speech of Kegent Morton, ..... 324
The great reputation of Buchanan's work, . . . 325
Its essential value, ...... 327
CHAPTEE XIX.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Character of Buchanan's correspondence, .... 329
Letter to Pierre Daniel, ...... 330
Letter to Daniel Rogers, ...... 332
CONTENTS. xvii
PAGE
Letter to Henry Scrimgeour, . . . . 334
Letter of Beza to Buchanan, ..... 335
French letter by Buchanan, ... . 337
Letter of Buchanan to Tycho Brah£, .... 338
Letter of Buchanan to a young Scotsman, . . . 339
Beza to Buchanan, ...... 341
Hubert Languet to Buchanan, • . . 343
Buchanan's correspondence with Elie Vinet, , . . . 345
CHAPTER XX.
LAST DAYS — CONCLUSION.
Visit of Andrew and James Melville to Buchanan, . .. 349
Anecdotes regarding his last days, .... 351
His death and burial, . . > . . . 353
Concluding remarks, ...... 354
APPENDIX A. —
(1) Letter of Sir Thomas Kandolph to Sir Peter Young, . 363
(2) Georgii Buchanani Vita ab ipso scripta, . . . 363
APPENDIX B. — Buchanan's account of his Procuratorship in the
University of Paris, ...... 370
APPENDIX C. — Letter of Buchanan to Sir Thomas Randolph, . 377
APPENDIX D. — Buchanan's Testament Dative, . . . 379
INDEX, . . . . . . . 381
GEORGE BUCHANAN
THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION.
1506-1520.
FOR continental scholars and men of letters during
the latter half of the sixteenth century the most
distinguished person then living in the British
Islands was the Scottish humanist and reformer,
George Buchanan. The testimonies of Buchanan's
contemporaries place this fact beyond question.
Buchanan owed this eminence to his mastery of Latin,
then the international language of Europe ; in the
composition of Latin prose and verse, Buchanan had,
indeed, hardly a second in Britain, so that he easily
stands as the representative British humanist of his
own day. The terms in which the humanists of the
sixteenth century speak of each other must always
be taken with large modification ; of their friends
their laudations are apt to be as meaningless as
their denunciations of their enemies. Yet, when
all allowance has been made for uncritical superla-
tives, the testimonies of Buchanan's most eminent
2 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
contemporaries leave us in no doubt as to his im-
mense reputation. What the great printer, Henri
Estienne, said of him, and Camden approvingly
repeats, was generally received as true — that
Buchanan " was easily the first poet of his age ".
So long as Latin continued to be the language of
literature, Buchanan's fame on the Continent re-
mained unimpaired ; for Grotius in the next
century he was Scotiae illud numen ; and Milton's
antagonist Saumaise spoke of him as " the greatest
man of his age". Even into the eighteenth century,
as we shall see, Buchanan still retained on the Con-
tinent a certain vitality as a man of letters. In
the present century he has been but the shadow of
a name ; yet it is curious proof of his once brilliant
reputation, that, as by a kind of echo, he is even
now rarely mentioned on the Continent except as
" the celebrated Buchanan."
In England, Buchanan remained a living force in
literature for much the same period as on the
Continent. In the sixteenth century, Roger Ascham
and Sir Philip Sidney acknowledge his supremacy
in the world of letters ; and in the seventeenth,
Milton and Cowley speak of him with the highest
respect. For Dryden, Buchanan as a writer of
history was " comparable to any of the moderns, and
excelled by few of the ancients." Buchanan was
still well known in England to the close of the
eighteenth century. Warton, for example, speaks
of him as "a popular modern classic," and Boswell
has recorded a characteristic tribute which Dr.
Johnson paid to him. " Ah ! Dr. Johnson," said a
certain Scotsman, " what would you have said had
Buchanan been an Englishman ? " " Why, sir, I
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 3
should not have said, had he been an Englishman,
what I will say of him as a Scotchman, that he was
the only man of genius whom his country ever pro-
duced." And on another occasion Johnson declared
that " Buchanan not only had great knowledge of
the Latin, but was a great poetical genius ". It is
significant, however, that Porson confessed that he
had not even heard of such a person as Buchanan.
By Scotsmen, Buchanan has always been regarded
as one of the great characters in their national
history. "There are not, perhaps," says Mr. Hill
Burton, " above three or four names holding so
proud a place in the homage of his countrymen as
Buchanan's." His countrymen are proud of him as
their most distinguished scholar, and as one of the
very limited number of British writers who, with
Hume, Adam Smith, and Scott, have achieved a
European reputation. His association with Mary
Queen of Scots has assured him an undying memory
so long as her tragic fortunes remain a theme of
interest. In his capacity as tutor to James vi. he
has a place in the traditions of his country which
he could not have gained by all his skill in the
imitation of classical Latin. In spite of his foreign
training and classical affinities, his countrymen have
always recognised in him the typical Scotsman, as
strongly and distinctively marked as Knox or
Carlyle himself. It was Buchanan, indeed, who sup-
plied that famous phrase — praefervidum ingenium
Scotorum — which has been accepted as the happiest
characterisation of the national temper of his country-
men.1 But the most signal tribute to the great per-
1 It should be said that Buchanan did not actually use this phrase.
It seems to have been suggested by the following sentence in his
4 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
sonality of Buchanan is the amazing transformation
which, in common with Virgil and Rabelais, he has
undergone in the minds of the people. Buchanan,
the fastidious scholar of the Renaissance, the trans-
lator of the Psalms of David, the author of a serious
History which fills a thick folio volume, has been
transformed into the court fool of his royal pupil,
and his name associated with an obscene jest-book,
of whose indecencies he is as innocent as Virgil of
the black arts that popular imagination ascribed to
him. Yet in spite of the enduring place he holds
in the memory of his countrymen it cannot be said
that he is a living force in their minds. By the very
conditions which made his European reputation he
has forfeited his portion in the present intellectual
life of his country. It is not only that the two folio
volumes which make up his works are written in a
dead language. The themes on which he expended
his best powers are largely inspired by circum-
stances which, from their very nature, could have
no abiding interest for the mass of his countrymen.
The object of the present biography is to show what
it was in Buchanan that won him the admiration of
his contemporaries, and what share may be fairly
assigned to him in the general development of the
national life of Scotland.
GEORGE BUCHANAN was born on the lands of
Moss, or Mid-Leowen, near Killearn, in Stirlingshire,
about the beginning of February 1506. The exact
spot of his birth was a few yards from the river
Blane, and about two miles to the south-east of
History : " ne Scotorum praefervida ingenia in errorem inemendabilem
universam rem praecipitarent ". — Hist. p. 321 (D). As usually quoted,
praffervidum almost invariably appears as perfcrvidum.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 5
the village. Part of the house in which he was born,
consisting of a thatched roof resting on oaken
spars, existed till as late as 1812, when a modern
residence was built almost on the site of the ancient
one. From the oaken spars of the original cottage
a table and chair were made, which are now in
possession of the present owners of the modern
house.1 These are the only relics of Buchanan now
to be found in his native district. There is a tradi-
tion in the neighbourhood that Buchanan was born,
not in the house above mentioned, but in a shieling
among the hills behind it. As his birth took place
in February, however, the season of the year renders
this improbable.2
In the cursory account he has given of his own
life, Buchanan, with the proverbial weakness of
Scotsmen, does not forget to mention that the
family to which he belonged, though in narrow
circumstances, was yet of honourable descent. Like
other clans, the Buchanans had their legendary
ancestor. In the case of the clan. Buchanan, this
ancestor was Anselan Buey (Fair) Okyan, son of
Okyan, provincial king of the southern part of
Ulster. By reason of the share he had taken in a
general massacre of the Danes, Anselan was forced
to flee to Scotland in 1016, during the reign of
1 New Statistical Account of Scotland.
2 There can be no doubt whatever that Buchanan's birthplace was
the house immediately on the banks of the Blane. " During the life-
time of the late proprietor, who died in 1808, in the ninety-fourth year
of his age," says Irving, " the farm-house in which Buchanan was born
was twice rebuilt : but on each occasion its original dimensions and
characteristics were studiously preserved ; and an oak beam, together
with an inner wall, has even retained its ancient position. The present
building, which may be considered as a correct model of Buchanan's
paternal residence, is a lowly cottage thatched with straw; but this
cottage is still visited with a kind of religious veneration." — Memoirs of
Buchanan, p. 2 (Edin. 1817).
6 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Malcolm IL, landing on the north coast of Argyll,
near the Lennox. For his distinguished services
against the Danes in their attacks on Scotland,
Malcolm rewarded him with the grant of several
lands, those of Pitwhonidy and Strathyre being
specially mentioned. By marriage with one of the
Dennistouns, a noted family of the Lennox, An-
selan also gained a small part of the estate of
Buchanan, though the greater part of that estate
was granted to him by Malcolm.1
o «/
The first historic Buchanan was Anselan, cham-
berlain to Malduin, Earl of Lennox, the seventh in
descent from Anselan Buey. This Anselan ob-
tained from the Earl of Lennox a charter of Clare-
inch (Clarines), an island in Lochlomond, in 1225."
The name of this island was adopted by the family
as their slogan or war-cry. The son of this An-
selan, Gilbert, was the first to assume the terri-
torial name of Buchanan.3 Two of his descendants,
previous to the most illustrious of all the Buchan-
ans, have a claim to be specially mentioned. Sir
Alexander Buchanan, who accompanied the Earl of
Buchan to France during the regency of Albany,
has the credit, on fairly good grounds, of having
slain the Duke of Clarence at Bauge with his own
hands, and of having carried off the Duke's coronet.4
Another descendant, Maurice Buchanan, who acted
as treasurer to the Princess Margaret, wife of the
Dauphin (afterwards Louis XL), has on the highest
authority been accredited with the authorship of
1 Buchanan of Auchinar, Essay upon the Family and Surname of
Buchanan. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
4 This story is told in the Book of Pluscarden. For a commentary
on the story, see Introduction to vol. x. of the Historians of Scotland,
by F. J. H. Skene. '
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 7
the Book of Pluscarden.1 It will be seen, therefore,
that Buchanan could justly claim for himself that,
on his father's side, he came of an honourable
stock.
It is, however, to the Buchanans of Drumikill,
a younger branch of the family, that Buchanan
belongs. As Buchanan's family and clan connec-
tions had a very direct bearing on his life and
opinions, it is necessary that these should be clearly
understood. The first of the family of Drumikill
was Thomas Buchanan, the grandson of Sir Walter
Buchanan and Isobel, daughter of Murdach, Duke
of Albany, and Isobel, heiress of Lennox.2 To
Thomas, first of Drumikill, succeeded Robert, the
grandfather of George Buchanan. Thomas Buchan-
an, the father of George, was son and apparent
heir to this Robert.3 On his father's side, there-
fore, we see Buchanan's connection with the family
and clan of Lennox — a fact that claims to be
specially noted in speaking of a time when, as Mr.
Froude has said, " social duty in Scotland was
overridden by the more sacred obligation of affinity
or private bond". It cannot, of course, be main-
tained that his connection with the house of Lennox
determined Buchanan's choice of the side he came
to take in the great political and religious questions
1 Skene, Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, vol. ix. p. 447.
2 Buchanan of Auchmar, Essay.
3 In biographies of Buchanan it is usually stated that his father was
the second son of Thomas Buchanan of Drumikill. But the statement
in the text is proved by a deed, dated 5th August 1531, now in the pos-
session of Mr. H. D. Erskine of Cardross. I have to thank Mr.
Guthrie Smith of Mugdock Castle for drawing my attention to this
deed. In Buchanan of Auchmar's day it would appear that certain
persons inclined to the statement made in the text. Auchmar himself,
however, did not accept it, and he has been followed by subsequent
biographers of Buchanan.
8 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of his time, and that his detestation of the Hamil-
tons was prompted by mere clan rivalries. Yet, in
spite of his humanistic training and long sojourn
abroad, Buchanan never forgot that he was a
Scotsman in the first place, and in the second a
Lennox-man, the hereditary foe of the Hamiltons.
How strong such ties still remained throughout a
century when new principles thrown into society
affected the deepest springs of men's actions is
curiously shown in the case of one who even in
greater degree than Buchanan might be supposed
to have been superior to feelings of this nature :
Knox himself, all absorbed as he was in his great
mission, declared to Bothwell that he could not
forget that three of his ancestors had served the
Bothwell family.
It admits of conclusive proof that on his father s
side Buchanan was of Celtic descent. Anselan,
the name of the legendary founder of the Bu-
chanans, is simply the Gaelic Auslan ; and Mac-
auslan was actually the name of the lairds of
Buchanan.1 The Macauslans and the Macmillans
were branches of the same clan, and of the Macmil-
lans an authentic pedigree exists which places their
Celtic descent beyond question.2 Not only was
Buchanan, on his father's side, a Celt by birth ; in
all probability Gaelic was his mother tongue.
Till his fourteenth year he must have lived mainly
at Killearn and Cardross, Menteith, and in both of
these districts the prevailing language must have
1 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, vol. ix. part ii. p. 449.
2 Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. iii. p. 489. The Okyan, which Buchanan
of Auchmar gives as the patronymic of Anselan Buey, appears in the
Macmillan pedigree as Cainn. I am indebted for guidance on these
points to the kindness of Mr. Skene.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 9
been Gaelic.1 The introductory chapters of his
History of Scotland also prove that he was perfectly
familiar with that language.2 That he had the
feelings and prepossessions of a Celt, his writings,
prose and poetry, abundantly prove. When he
celebrates, as he frequently does, the valour and
glories of the Scots, it is the Celts of whom he is
thinking : and when he speaks in his History of the
English immigrations in the reigns of Malcolm and
David, it is with no feeling of the benefits they
actually brought to the country.
On his mother's side, Buchanan came of an
equally honourable stock. Her name was Agnes
Heriot, of the Heriots of Trabroun, a family of con-
siderable importance in the county of Haddington.
The lands of Trabroun, near Lauder in Berwick-
shire, consisting of about 400 acres, were originally
granted to John Heriot for military service by
Archibald, Earl of Douglas — the charter being con-
firmed by James I. of Scotland in the nineteenth
year of his reign.3 In this charter the Earl desig-
nates John Heriot as " squire and heir to his con-
federate, James Heriot of Niddry-Marshall ".4 It
is perhaps worth noting that George Heriot, the
founder of the magnificent hospital in Edinburgh,
1 The following story told of Buchanan has all the marks of truth,
as he certainly knew Gaelic, and the humour of the story is thoroughly
characteristic. A woman whom he met in France gave out that she was
devil-ridden, and could speak all languages. Buchanan tried her with
Gaelic ; but, finding her ignorant of that language, protested that the
devil was at least ignorant of Gaelic. — Man, Censure of Ruddiman,
p. 329.
2 I am assured of this by Mr. Skene.
3 Steven, History of George Heriot's Hospital, where a pedigree of
the Heriots of Trabroun is given in the Appendix to the second edition
(Edin. 1859).
4 " Dilecto armigero suo Johanni de Heriot, filio ac heredi dilecti con-
federati sui Jacobi de Heriot de Nidri-Marshall."
10 THE LIFE OF GEOKGE BUCHANAN.
was a scion of the same family of the Heriots of
Trabroun.1 As George Heriot was nineteen years
of age when Buchanan died, he may have had
direct personal intercourse with his famous relative.
The Heriots of Trabroun, it should also be added,
were of Teutonic descent, so that in Buchanan we
have that fortunate blending of races which Lord
Brougham found so happily realised in himself.
Besides George, Thomas Buchanan and Agnes
Heriot had other four sons and three daughters, all
of whom reached maturity. Of the other members
of the family, Patrick is the only one with whom we
shall casually meet in Buchanan's biography. Like
George, Patrick also chose learning as his pursuit,
and gained some distinction as a scholar. He died
before his more famous brother, who has commemo-
rated him in his autobiography and in the following
fine epigram : —
Si mihi private fas indulgere dolori,
Ereptum, f rater, te mihi jure fleam :
Nostra bonis raros cui protulit artibus aetas,
Et nivea morum simplicitate pares.
At si gratandum laetis est rebus amici,
Gratulor immensis quod potiare bonis.
Omnia quippe piae vitae et sinceriter actae,
Praemia securus non peritura tenes.2
The family was always poor, the lands of Moss
being neither extensive nor productive, and Thomas
Buchanan seems to have suffered, while still a young
man, from the same disease which at an equally early
age afflicted his son George. His father, Robert of
Drumikill, could afford him little assistance, as his
own affairs were equally unsatisfactory. On the
death of her husband, while her family was still
1 Steven, History of George Heriot's Hospital. 2 Epig. ii. 23.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 11
young (George was probably only seven), Agnes
Heriot found herself reduced to the greatest straits.
It was indeed, her son tells us, only her excellent
qualities that enabled her to rear her numerous
family in the face of the difficulties with which she
had to contend.1 Poverty was to be Buchanan's
own constant companion to the very close of his
life, so that this early acquaintance with strenuous
self-denial was perhaps the best discipline he could
have known. At the same time, this life-long
prospect of actual want, though it never drew from
Buchanan the pitiful complaints and cringing appeals
of Erasmus, doubtless helped to sour a temper not
naturally very uniform or accommodating.
A deed dated 21st July 1513 still exists, in which
a lease of certain lands near Cardross, Menteith,
is granted to Agnes Heriot and her sons, Thomas
Buchanan the younger, Patrick, Alexander, and
George.2 When he was about seven years of age,
therefore, Buchanan must have left Killearn for Car-
dross in the district of Menteith, and the tradition of
that neighbourhood is that he actually passed his boy-
hood there. We have no certain record as to where
Buchanan received the elements of his education.
He himself says only that he was educated in the
"schools of his native country". The tradition in
the neighbourhood of Killearn is that he attended
school in that village ; and a writer of somewhat
dubious authority states that he attended the school
of Dumbarton.3 In the records of Dumbarton no trace
1 The family motto of the Heriots of Trabroun is Fortem posce
animum.
2 This deed was found in Cardross Castle. The lease was renewed
in August 1531. In the renewed lease Buchanan is styled Mr. George.
By that date he was Master of Arts.
3 Mackenzie, Lives of Scots Writers, vol. iii. p. 156.
12 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of Buchanan as a pupil can be found ; yet in the
account he gives in his History of the capture of
Dumbarton Castle by Captain Crawford in 1571 he
describes that fortress with a minuteness of detail
which suggests the familiarity of boyhood. The
schools at Killearn and Dumbarton, it may be said,
were both of some repute. It is as probable as not,
therefore, that Dumbarton and Killearn were the
" schools of his native country " to which he himself
refers. At Dumbarton especially we may be certain
that Buchanan would have ample opportunity of
preparing himself to take his place in the schools of
Paris. There is indeed excellent reason for be-
lieving that, with the exception of the Netherlands,
no country in Europe was better provided than
Scotland with schools for what was then primary
and secondary education. Of the Low Countries it
has been remarked that " whereas in other countries
universities preceded grammar schools, in the
Netherlands universities were a development of the
grammar school "-1 What is here said of the Nether-
lands applies in large measure to Scotland. It was
the pursuit of higher education that took so many
Scottish students to the continental universities ;
and it was the perception of this fact that led to
the foundation of St. Andrews, and afterwards of
Glasgow and Aberdeen. We have documentary
evidence "that grammar schools existed in con-
nection with most of the cathedrals, abbeys,
collegiate churches, principal burghs, and even in
towns which have since sunk into obscurity ".2 In
1 Mark Pattison, Essays, i. p. 243 (Clarendon Press, 1889).
2 Grant, Burgh Schools of Scotland, p. 72 (Collins, Glasgow, 1876).
The introductory chapter on the Burgh Schools of Scotland previous to
the Reformation is based on written records of unquestionable authority.
PARENTAGE AND EARLY EDUCATION. 13
Scotland, in fact, centuries before the Reformation,
education was placed within the reach of all classes.1
In these schools Latin was the chief subject taught ;
but, curiously enough, Greek also seems to have had
a place in certain of them. The Latin taught in
Scotland in Buchanan's day must have been far
indeed from the classical standard which he himself
ultimately attained ; and as for Greek, Buchanan
did not receive instruction in that language even in
the schools of Paris, but had afterwards to acquire
it by his own unaided efforts.
By his fourteenth year Buchanan had given
evidence of such distinct talent that his mother's
brother, James Heriot (whose name Buchanan is
careful to mention in the meagre sketch of his life 2)
determined to send him to the University of Paris,
then the dream of all the studious youth of Scotland.
Glasgow University had been founded in 1450, but
it had disappointed the hopes of its founders, and
was now in a helpless state of inefficiency.3 It is
certain that had Buchanan received his university
training in Glasgow, and not in Paris, his career
would have been widely different from what it
actually was. At Glasgow he could neither have
acquired that command of classical Latin which was
the basis of his reputation, nor would he have been
brought into contact, at the most susceptible period
1 Grant, Burgh Schools of Scotland, p. 72. Mr. Grant's researches
conclusively prove that the educational advantages of the country made
perfectly reasonable the famous Act of Parliament of 1496, enjoining all
barons and freeholders that were of substance to send their sons to school
till they acquired " perfyt Latin".
2 This James Heriot seems to have been "Justiciar" of Lothian.
See pedigree of the Trabroun family above referred to.
3 Cosmo Innes, Sketches of Early Scotch History ("The University").
Edin. 1861.
14 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of his life, with the great intellectual and religious
movements which affected him so powerfully.
Thus early, therefore, began that wandering
life which, whether of necessity or choice, was to
be Buchanan's fortune, till his final return to his
native country when past his fiftieth year. Save
perhaps for one short visit, he does not seem to have
again returned to his native district. Except for
early associations, indeed, the country where his home
lay could have had but little attraction for him. To
modern eyes the Blane valley is a delightful vestibule
to the glories of Highland scenery, and " the varied
realms of fair Menteith " are the admiration of every
year's tourists. But Buchanan had the feelings of
his age and of the classical tradition in the matter
of scenery. We have abundant evidence from his
writings that the forests and hills of his native
districts were the last sights in the world on which
he could look with pleasure. It is the smiling
plains of France, with their broad, calm rivers, that
he thinks of when he wishes to descant on the
beauties of nature.1 His native district, however,
has always shown itself proud of his great reputation,
and his monument, a towering obelisk, erected in
1788 on the ridge on which the village of Killearn
stands, is a conspicuous object in the neighbourhood.
This obelisk, it is said, was fashioned after the
model of that which commemorates the battle of the
Boyne.2 There is undoubtedly a curious fitness in
this conjunction of the names of William in. and
Buchanan.
1 Cf. for example his Adventm in Galliam, Fratres Fraterrimi,
xxviii.
2 New Statistical Account of Scotland.
CHAPTER II.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM IN
PARIS — BUCHANAN'S FIRST STUDIES THERE.
1520-1522.
BUCHANAN was more or less directly connected with
Paris and its University for the next twelve years —
a period, it may be safely affirmed, among the most
important not only in the history of the University
but of France itself.1 When Buchanan arrived in
Paris in 1520, its University no longer held that
place in the mind of Europe which it had held
throughout the Middle Ages. There is, indeed, good
ground for supposing that even by the middle of the
fourteenth century the Paris schools had lost some-
thing of their prestige as the intellectual centre of
Europe. " The zeal of that illustrious school," wrote
Richard of Bury, during the invasion of France by
Edward in., "has become lukewarm, nay, even
frozen, whose rays once illumined every corner of
the earth." 2 Even before that period the most
influential thinkers were no longer Frenchmen, and
the most important books in theology were no longer
1 On this occasion, Buchanan remained two years in Paris. On his
second visit, made some three years later, he remained ten. Later in
life he made other sojourns there, two of them of several years' duration.
3 Quoted by Mr. Mullinger, The University of Cambridge from the
Earliest Times to the Royal Injunctions of 1535, p. 214.
16 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
produced in the University of Paris.1 Nevertheless,
so long as scholasticism continued to satisfy the
intellectual needs of Europe, Paris remained the
great school to which men were drawn as by natural
attraction. And north of the Alps, to the close
of the fifteenth century, the hold of scholasticism
on men's minds was hardly less powerful than ever
it had been. But during that century a new world
of spiritual and intellectual interests had been
opened up by the scholars of Italy. The literatures
of Greece and Rome had revealed to these scholars
conditions of thought and feeling which made im-
possible for them the barren subtleties of the
scholastic theology. As their discovery was in
reality an immense emancipation for the human
spirit, it was merely a question of time how soon the
best minds of Europe should be universally drawn
to their side. As it happened, the University of
Paris was the last great centre of studies to open its
doors to the new gospel. Scholasticism was indeed
so bound up with all the interests of the University,
that to break with it would have implied a trans-
formation of its very mode of being. The expedi-
tions of the French kings, Charles vin. and Louis xn.,
had brought France and Italy into too close rela-
tions not to have imported into Paris something
of the new ideals of the Italian humanists ; but
there was no ready disposition on the part of the
authorities of the University to give any important
place to those new studies and new methods which
ran counter to the traditions of their own schools.
In 1498 Erasmus sought and found in Oxford the
1 Kaufmann, Geschichte der deutschen Unwersitiiten (1888), Intro-
ductory Section.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 17
instruction in Greek which he had sought in vain
in Paris. During the latter part of the fifteenth
and the beginning of the sixteenth century, teachers
of Greek were always to be found in Paris, but the
instruction they gave was of the most elementary
kind, and they themselves held no assured position
in the University. Not, indeed, till 1530 did
Greek receive a recognised place in the schools of
Paris. In that year Francis I., mainly inspired by
the greatest Greek scholar of his day in France,
Guillaume Bude', founded the College Royal1
for the teaching of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
But this foundation was made in the teeth of the
most vehement opposition on the part of the Uni-
versity.2 Even the study of the Latin classics, as
they had come to be known through the labours of
the Italians, found little favour in Paris ; and till
nearly the middle of the sixteenth century, the
records of the University continued to be written
mainly in the Latin of the Middle Ages. Of this
Latin style we have a perfect example in the
History of Scotland by our own John Major, who,
as late as 1530, was one of the foremost figures
in the University of Paris.
Such was the general attitude towards the new
studies on the part of the University when
Buchanan arrived there in 1 520. In certain quarters,
indeed, strong dissatisfaction was felt at the exist-
ing state of things, and within due limits strenuous
efforts were really being made to rationalise the
traditional subjects of study. In this connection,
1 Afterwards the College de France.
2 According to the theologians of Paris, Greek was simply " the
language of heretics".
B
18 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the work of Lefevre d'fitaples is specially note-
worthy. Lefevre had studied in Italy, and made
himself acquainted with the results attained by its
scholars. He did not, however, become a humanist
of the Italian type, preferring purity of form to
sound knowledge.1 Philosophy was at first his
main subject of study, and with the lights he had
received in Italy he made it his first great work to
present Aristotle in a rational form to the scholars
of Paris.2 This work he accomplished before 1517,
but, as we shall see, Buchanan had not the good
fortune to profit by it. Even more important was
the work which Lefevre accomplished in theology.
By his liberal and intelligent handling of the text
of Scripture, he did more than any other French-
man, except Calvin himself, to induce a critical
attitude towards the traditions of the Church.
Lefevre's philosophical and theological labours were
alike an abomination to the University, and in 1525,
during the captivity of Francis i. after the battle
of Pavia, it succeeded in driving him from the
country.3 Buchanan has paid his own tribute to
the work and character of Lefevre, and there can
be little doubt that he owed a direct debt to this
forerunner of Calvin.4
There is no one else in the opening years of the
sixteenth century at Paris to be named with Lefevre
for general openness of mind and actual achievement.
But that he had a considerable following is conclu-
1 Graf, La Vie et Us Ecrits de Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples (Strasbourg,
1842), p. 7. 2 Ibid. p. 9. 3 Ibid. p. 119.
* Buchanan thus celebrates Lefevre's services to letters : —
Qui studiis primus lucem intulit omnibus, artes
Edoctum cunctas haec tegit urna Fabrum.
Heu 1 tenebrae tantum potuere extinguere lumen,
Si non in tenebris lux tamen ista micet. — Epig. ii. 11.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 19
sively proved by the ready acceptance given to the
doctrines of Luther, which, about the date of
Buchanan's arrival, had begun to find their way into
France. It should be said, also, that certain of the
colleges were much more disposed than others to
welcome the new lights. The Colleges of Montaigu
and Ste. Barbe (with which we shall afterwards see
Buchanan associated) may be taken as representing
the extreme tendencies of the University. The
administration of the College Montaigu under Jean
Standonck shows what ideals were still possible in
Paris, even into the opening years of the sixteenth
century. Erasmus, who was a member of this
college at the close of the fifteenth century,1 has
given a vivid description of its domestic arrange-
ments and its scheme of studies. Of the latter, it
is sufficient to say that their unprofitable absurdity
more than anything else made Erasmus through-
out his life the inveterate foe of the schoolmen.
On the other hand, Ste. Barbe was under more
rational management, and at least from about
1525 onwards freely adopted the reforms of the
humanists.2
But besides the question of the new studies,
another matter then engaged the University, of still
greater importance, and provocative of still fiercer
conflict of opinion. The doctrines of Luther had met
with acceptance in unexpected quarters. In 1519,
a year before Buchanan's arrival in Paris, Luther's
dispute with Eck had been referred to the Univer-
sity for decision. Its judgment, withheld for two
1 As also the Scotsmen Boece and Major. Rabelais has directed his
keenest wit against the wretched treatment of the students in this
college.
2 J. Quicherat, Histoire de Sainte-Barbe (Paris, 1860), vol. L p. 150.
20 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
years, was an unqualified censure of Luther's
position. As in Buchanan, to the end of his life, the
humanist and the religious reformer remained mixed
in varying proportions, it is important that we
should understand the religious position in Paris
during this period of his connection with the Univer-
sity. It was in the conflicts of the old and the new
studies, and of the old and the new religions, during
these years in Paris, that Buchanan acquired the
bent which he retained till his final return to
Scotland about 1560.
From the first introduction of Luther's opinions
into Paris, it was noted that the men with whom
they found most favour were the zealous advocates
of reform in the University studies.1 In the
interests of the new learning this was unfortunate,
as scholar and heretic gradually came to be
synonymous terms, and the new studies to be de-
nounced as ferociously as novel tenets in theology.
In the colleges, where the traditions of scholasticism
had come to be regarded with scanty respect, secret
sympathisers with Luther were found in considerable
numbers between 1520 and 1530. In Ste. Barbe,
where Buchanan afterwards acted as regent, all
shades of orthodoxy and heterodoxy were to be
found, Lutheranism very prominently among the
rest.2 On all these novelties the University
authorities looked with horror and alarm. In
their opposition to reform both in studies and in
religion, there was doubtless much honest zeal,
especially on the part of the theological faculty.
1 "Le Lutheranisme, n6 en Allemagne, s'insinuoit en France ; et il
faut avouer que les gens de lettres se portoient volontiers de ce c6te."
— Crevier, Histoire de I' University de Paris, vol. v. p. 169.
2 Quicherat, Sainte- Barbe, vol. i. chap. xxi.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 21
Yet the theologians could hardly conceal from
themselves the fact that these reforms virtually
meant the reconstruction of the entire University—
a reconstruction in which their ancient prestige
would be gone. The powers of the theological
faculty were directed and concentrated by the famous
College of the Sorbonne in its opposition to reform.
By the nature of its constitution, and by its dogged
adhesion to every tittle of the scholastic theology,
this College had gained such ascendency in the
councils of the University that it came practically
to represent the entire theological faculty.1 Directed
by the doctors of the Sorbonne, the opposition of
the University to reform in religion was not less
formidable than that of Rome itself. Its immense
authority was due partly to its fame as the infal-
lible oracle of theological science ; but, above all, to
the fact that its decisions in every case received the
faithful support of the Parliament of Paris.
Next to Rome itself, the theological faculty of
Paris had been the main support on which the
highest teaching of the Middle Ages had rested.
It claimed for itself the right — denied to the Pope
himself — of sovereign decree on the truth or
falsity of all religious doctrine.2 Its doctors clearly
saw, therefore, that should the reforms in studies
and religion take effect, their whole doctrinal sys-
tem would be discredited, and they themselves
dethroned from their pre-eminent place as the ad-
visers of popes and princes, and the teachers of the
highest forms of truth. It was this consciousness
1 Thurot, De I 'Organisation de I'Enseignement dans FUniversite de
Paris au Moyen-Age, p. 130. The College de Navarre was wealthier
than the Sorbonne, but it never attained its fame and authority.
2 Ibid. p. 160.
22 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of their very existence being at stake which through-
out the whole century inspired their ceaseless war
with every form of what they deemed heresy.
During the period of which we are speaking, the
battle between the two parties was practically
fought and decided. The party of reform un-
doubtedly numbered in its ranks the best spirits
of the University ; but in spite of its zeal and
the distinction of its representatives, its existence
would have been a brief one but for the good
wishes and sometimes the efficient services of
Francis I. In this matter, as in all others, Francis
showed his inability to lay down for himself a
settled plan of action and abide by it ; yet it must
be admitted that as far as he could have any motive
at heart besides his own self-gratification, he sin-
cerely sympathised with the new spirit of his time.
Even though eventually he so bitterly disappointed
the hopes of the French religious reformers, they
still acknowledged that the country owed him a
debt for his genuine interest in the cause of true
learning. It may be regarded as conclusive evi-
dence of Francis's undoubted claims to gratitude in
this instance, that Beza in his Icones heads his French
worthies with the portrait of that monarch, and
while apologising to his fellow-religionists for its
intrusion, frankly states the debt of learning to a
king " whose vices seemed almost virtues in the
light of the depravity of later times ".* But during
the captivity of Francis, after the battle of Pavia,
the Sorbonne and the Parliament laid a heavy hand
1 The same acknowledgment to Francis is made in the Histoire
EccUsiastique des Eglises reformees au Royaume de France, published at
Geneva in 1580, p. 3.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 23
on the professors of the new religion, burning
some, and driving others into exile. In 1529 the
theologians gained a great triumph in the burning
of Louis de Berquin — " the most learned of the
nobles " — the most daring champion of reform in
learning and religion, who had hitherto been sup-
ported in his defiance of the old order by Francis
himself. It soon appeared that the death of Ber-
quin meant the triumph of traditional theology in
France, and the precarious existence of the new
learning for nearly the remainder of the century.
The ill-conditioned zeal of the Lutherans them-
selves in Paris and elsewhere in great measure lost
them the chance of gaining the country. The
stupid affair of the Placards in 1534, when un-
seemly remarks on the old religion were inscribed
in the most public places of the city, seemed to
give Francis the excuse he wanted for throwing in
his lot once for all with the party with which he
thought he saw that his real interests lay. From
this date it may be said that the battle of religious
reform in France was lost. In the years imme-
diately following 1520 it had certainly seemed as if
the new opinions approved by the most enlightened
minds in the University, and favoured by the King,
and especially by his famous sister, Margaret of
Navarre, had as fair prospect of victory in France
as elsewhere. Many reasons have been given for
this abortive reformation in France ; but the im-
pression we gain from the writings of the time
scarcely leaves us in any doubt as to the true one.
The relations of France to Eome had all along been
so intimate that to break them at any time during
the sixteenth century would have implied the dis-
24 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
ruption of the French nation. And the University
of Paris, by its immitigable antagonism to all
reform in religion, was undoubtedly one of the
main factors in finally thwarting the forces that
made for such reform. All through the century
the new opinions continued to gain support among
the best educated classes in the provinces ; but,
opposed by the Crown and the University, the
French reformers could not but fail to make their
cause the cause of the nation.
It was almost at the beginning 01 the twofold
struggle above described that Buchanan first found
himself in France, and as he himself came to have
his own share in that struggle, and as the bent of
his life was mainly taken during these very years,
it was necessary that some account should be given
of the great questions at issue.
For several centuries before Buchanan's day the
University of Paris had been to Scottish students
far more than of late years the German Universities
have been to their descendants. Especially since
the foundation of the Scots College in 1325 there
had been a continuous stream of Scots to that city.
An interesting document lately published enables
us to form some idea of the numbers of Scottish
students who might have been found in Paris at
any time during the fifteenth century. This is the
annual account of the German " Nation " of the
Paris University for the year 1494.1 In this
1 This account is given in Jourdain's Excursions Historiqiies et
Politiques h, travers le Moyen Age (Paris, 1888). It is perhaps worth
mentioning that the name of John Major appears in the list of Masters
of Arts. The entry of his name is as follows : " Johannes Maior, dyo-
cesis S. Andree. Bursa valet 4 sol." The fee paid by Major is that of
most of the graduates, viz., 1 lib.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 25
account we have the list of the students who in
that year paid the fees for the degrees of Bachelor
and Master of Arts. Out of the number of eighty-
six, twenty-one are Scots.1 As probably the large
majority of students took the degree of Bachelor,2
and at least three years' study was required of the
candidate, we may form some notion of the total
number of Scots then attending the University.
It would also appear that students were relieved
from the above fees on a satisfactory plea of
poverty, and such a plea, we may suppose, was
likely to be as frequently urged by Scottish
students as by their neighbours. At an earlier
period than the date of the above account the
numbers of Scottish students must have been even
larger, since by 1494 the Universities of St. An-
drews and Glasgow had both been founded. Al-
together, these facts conclusively show to what a
large extent Scotland must have been indebted to
France for the training of her most useful citizens.3
It is probable that the bulk of the Scots
students who found their way to Paris belonged to
the upper and middle classes. Through the influ-
ence of .some patron, the Scots College was, of
course, open to poor students; but that College
1 The German Nation included English, Irish, Germans, Poles, and
generally all students from the northern countries of Europe.
- Thurot, p. 40 (note).
3 On the Continent there seems to have been a very distinct impres-
sion of the Scottish character and intellect. Major (De Gestis Sco-
torum, lib. i. cap. vii.) reports that in his day it was a common French
proverb, " II est fier comme ung Escossois." And Erasmus, in a curious
passage in his Praise of Folly, in which he enumerates the characteristics
of the various European nations, says that "the Scots plumed them-
selves on their high birth and kindred with the royal family, and also on
their skill in dialectic subtleties." At a later day Galileo seems to
have had a similar impression regarding the type of the Scottish intel-
lect (MS. in Advocates' Library, Edin., referred to by Tytler, History of
Scotland, vol. i. p. 288 (ed. 1873).
26 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
could provide only for a small number of the Scots
who year after year sought the University. The
average number of bursars in each of the fifty
colleges that had been founded in Paris was only
nineteen,1 and in all likelihood the number pro-
vided for at the Scots College would be rather
under than above this average. The account of the
German Nation above referred to throws some light
o
on the comparative wealth of the students. The
fees charged on the attainment of the degrees of
bachelor and licentiate were in proportion to the
bursa or weekly expenses of the student ; and an
examination of the account shows that the Scots
were at least as well-to-do as their fellows. At the
same time, it is to be remembered that mendicancy
largely prevailed among the younger scholars, and
was regarded as no disgrace.2 By this means, there-
fore, poor Scots lads, once in Paris, might eke out a
living till they had taken the degree privileging
them to " regent " or teach in the schools of the
University. Buchanan's own case, as we shall
see, shows through what hardship and difficulty
many a Scots student must have fought his way to
learning.
Even the difficulties of the journey from Scot-
land to Paris were such as might have daunted less
hardy students. In reading the Latinists of the
sixteenth century we must always make allowance
for a certain licence of statement ; yet we must
suppose that in a sentence of John Vaus, the Aber-
deen grammarian, there is at least some element of
truth. Vaus paid a visit to Paris in 1522 for the
purpose of publishing a grammatical work, and he
1 Thurot, p. 126. 2 Ibid. p. 39.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 27
speaks of his journey as being attended " with the
greatest risks by land and sea, and dangers from
unscrupulous pirates ".* In England, lads proceed-
ing to Cambridge from the remoter districts went
in a body under a "fetcher".2 It is possible that
some such arrangement may have existed in Scot-
land in connection with France. Dumbarton, the
nearest sea-port to Buchanan's home, had an active
trade with France, and small detachments of young
Scotsmen may have been convoyed from that port
for the opening of the Paris schools in October.
It must have been a remarkable experience for
a boy of fourteen, like Buchanan, to be transported
from some provincial Scottish town into the extra-
ordinary world that composed the University of
Paris. It seems impossible to determine the exact
number of students and teachers who made up its
society at any given period. When the whole
community assembled on great occasions, however,
its numbers seemed those of a considerable town.
Of the life of the students something will have to
be said in another place ; but a few sentences from
a writer studiously moderate in all his statements
will give some notion of the society into which
Buchanan was now thrown : — " Such a world, we
may imagine, was not easy to discipline. Not only,
like the students of all ages and countries, did
they frequent cabarets and questionable haunts,
and mercilessly fleece every freshman (whom they
styled a bejaune), but they even committed crimes
which in our own day conduct to the convict-prison.
1 " Per maxima terrarum et maris discrimina piratarumque qui in-
justissimi sunt latrocinia," Cf. Cosmo Innes, Sketches of Early Scotch
History, p. 272 note. Edin. 1861.
2 Mullinger, History of Cambridge University, p. 346.
28 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
They associated themselves with vagabonds and
criminals, swaggered the streets at night in arms,
snapped their fingers at the law, assassinated, broke
into citizens' houses. The fStes celebrated by the
Nations in honour of their patrons, instead of being
an occasion of edification, were only a provocation
to drunkenness and debauch. The students scoured
the streets of Paris in arms, disturbed the peace-
able citizens by their shouts, maltreated every in-
offensive passer-by. In 1276 they even played dice
on the altars of the churches." l As the result of
endless conflicts with the civil authorities of the
city, the students were by Buchanan's day under
somewhat severer restraint ; but the records of the
University show that even then there were still
frequent occasions when all discipline was thrown
to the winds.
It is to be remembered that the University
of Paris, as it had grown up through the Middle
Ages, was in many respects something very differ-
ent from what we conceive as a University. The
University of Paris did at once the work of an
elementary school, a secondary school, and a uni-
versity. Before a student could enter the Faculty
of Arts, he must have learned reading, writing, and
the elements of Latin grammar,2 and these subjects
he could acquire at the schools of the University.
It was usual for students to enter the Arts Faculty
before the age of fifteen, but, as in the case of
the Scottish Universities, men of all ages sat on the
same benches with mere boys. The first degree to
be taken was that of Bachelor, for which a two
years' course of logic was required, the candidate
1 Thurot, p. 40. 2 Ibid. p. 37.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 29
not being under fourteen years of age.1 Both the
term of study and the subjects prescribed varied at
different periods. Buchanan, as we shall see, com-
pleted three years' study before he was made Bache-
lor, and other subjects besides logic made a large
part of his curriculum. For the degree, or rather
title, of Bachelor, the student received simply a
certificate, and not a diploma — Bachelorship not
conferring the privilege of teaching in connection
with the University. By the age of twenty-one
he might take the degree of Master of Arts, and
thus become a licentiate, with full privilege to teach
in any university of Europe. For the licentiates,
also, the subjects prescribed for examination varied
greatly at different periods ; but till after Buchan-
an's day these subjects were mainly logic, moral
and natural philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.
Having finished his course in Arts, the student
might then enter one of the higher faculties, as
they were called, of law, medicine, and theology.2
While pursuing his studies in any of these subjects
he might earn a subsistence by regenting in the
Arts Faculty. If he chose theology as his profes-
sion, he could not attain to all the privileges of that
Faculty till he took the degree of Doctor at the
age of thirty -five.
There were various ways in which the scholars
of Paris in Buchanan's day could prosecute their
studies. They might be presented to one of the
1 Strictly speaking, " bachelorship did not imply admission to a
degree, but simply the termination of the state of pupildom". — Mullinger,
p. 352. Scholars and bachelors were called dominus ; the licentiates,
magister. — Thurot, p. 60 (note).
2 Licence in Arts was compulsory for the higher degrees in law,
theology, and medicine.
30 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
fifty colleges that now made so important a part of
the University. In certain of these colleges the
students both boarded and received instruction as
bursars. They might board at pensionnats (paeda-
gogia) attached to the colleges, attending the col-
leges themselves for instruction.1 Again, living in
private lodgings, they might attend the classes of
some particular college, or the public classes con-
nected with the Nation to which they belonged.
Buchanan has not told us in which of these various
ways he began his studies in Paris ; but the fact
that he does not specify any college, and that on
the death of his uncle want of means forced him to
return to Scotland, would lead us to believe that he
was not a bursar. It is probable, therefore, that,
living in private lodgings, he may have attended the
public classes of the German Nation. The students
who lived in this fashion were known as martinets,
and, as we should expect, they formed the most
unruly element in the schools. So much trouble,
indeed, did these martinets occasion, that in 1463
the Faculty of Arts decided that they would grant
no certificate to a student who did not reside in a
college, a paedagogium, the house of some relative,
or that of some well-known member of the Uni-
versity.2 This decision, however, remained a dead
letter, as till the end of the sixteenth century num-
bers of students took up their abode wherever they
1 Paedagogia, that is, boarding-houses for students, with some mem-
bers of the University at their head. They were usually attached to
some college. It is possible that Buchanan may have been a boarder
in one of these, seeing he was not a bursar, and had to pay for his own
maintenance. The suggestion in the text, however, we think more
probable.
2 Thurot, p. 97.
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 31
could find quarters.1 The German Nation was well
equipped with schools, both for the elementary and
for more advanced instruction of its members. It
possessed eight schools in the Rue du Fouarre, con-
sisting of two houses, known respectively as the
Magnae Scolae and Scolae Septem Artium. The
Nation also owned another house in the Rue Ga-
lande, at the sign of the Pomme Rouge, with land
adjoining the Seine ; another in the Rue du Clos-
Bruneau, having for sign A I' Image de Notre-Dame.z
As the two years that Buchanan now spent in
Paris were afterwards placed to his credit at St.
Andrews, he must at once have enrolled himself as
a student of the Arts Faculty. This implies, as
has already been said, that he had mastered at least
the elements of Latin grammar when he arrived
there. The studies of these two years he has
described for us in a single sentence. " Partly of
his own choice," he says, " and partly of compulsion,
the writing of Latin verse, then the one subject
prescribed for boys, made the chief part of his
literary studies." That two years of the course
required for Bachelorship should thus have been
mainly devoted to Latin would seem to imply that
important modifications had been made on the sub-
jects of study. The traditional regulation was that
the whole three years should be almost exclusively
devoted to logic — knowledge of Latin grammar
and other elementary subjects being presupposed.
1 Pasquier, Recherches, etc., i. ix. ch. xvii. (quoted by Jourdain,
Excursions Historiques et PhUosophiques, p. 262 note).
2 It should be said that by the end of the fifteenth century the
schools in the Rue du Fouarre were closed. After that date, instruction
was mainly given in the colleges and paedagogia. — Thurot, p. 98.
3 Vita Sua. See Appendix A.
32 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
This statement of Buchanan, however, is borne out
by the fact that in 1452 the Faculty of Arts passed
a law in which it specially insisted on knowledge of
the rules of versification on the part of candidates
for the bachelor's certificate.1 It would be a
mistake to suppose that this instruction in Latin
necessarily implied a more intelligent conception
of the value of literary studies. Verse-making
in Latin had for centuries been practised in the
cloister schools ; and Erasmus has told us in suffi-
ciently emphatic terms how stale and unprofitable
the exercise could be made. " Heavens ! " he
exclaims, " what an age was that when the dis-
tichs of John Garland were explained to us boys
with laboured and prolix commentaries, and the
largest part of our time was wasted in dictating
and repeating the most foolish verses."2
It was undoubtedly in large measure this early
training in Latin verse that lost Buchanan to the
vernacular literature of his native country. His
own fine natural instinct for purity of form, and
this assiduous practice in his youth, soon gained him
a reputation in an exercise in which all his contem-
poraries strove to excel.3 As far as contemporary
fame was concerned, it was, of course, an immense
advantage that he should write in Latin. At the
same time, it lost him that place in the hearts of
his countrymen which his genius and intensely
Scottish type of character must certainly have
1 Thurot, p. 84. It is worth noting that Latin versification was
taught by Italians in Paris. The Paris doctors looked with disdain on
an exercise which they considered worthy only of a schoolmaster.
2 Erasmus, Opera, i. 514 f. (edit. Le Clerc).
3 On this subject cf. Pattison's Essays, vol. i. pp. 98, 210 (Clarendon
Press, 1889).
REVIVAL OF LETTERS AND RELIGIOUS REFORM. 33
assured him. In extent of mental horizon, as
probably in natural poetic gifts, he was superior to
his countrymen Dunbar, Lyndsay, and Douglas ; but
as it has happened, all these three have now a
vitality which can never again in the nature of things
be his. If, coming at the time he did, he had made
choice of his native speech as the vehicle of poetic
expression, he would have had behind him what
was wanting to all the Latin poets of the sixteenth
century, a national impulse and the inspiration that
comes of it. Thus inspired by such an impulse,
Buchanan might have inaugurated a new tradition in
Scottish poetry, and done much to save his country
from the intellectual sterility of the century and a
half that followed his death.
At the end of two years the death of his uncle
forced him to return to Scotland. Want of means
and serious illness, he tells us, were the occasion
of his return.1 From his repeated illnesses, which
appear in each case to have completely prostrated
him, it would seem that Buchanan was naturally of
a weak constitution, though doubtless hard fare
and excessive study in youth sowed the seeds of
the various ailments that afterwards afflicted him.
1 Buchanan's own words are very strong : " Gravi morbo correptus
ac undique inopia circumventus."
CHAPTER III.
MILITARY EXPEDITION — STUDIES AT
ST. ANDREWS.
1522-1526.
ON his return to Scotland Buchanan had to devote
almost a year to the recovery of his health. Where
he spent this time we have no means of ascertaining.
Probably, however, it was with his mother at Car-
dross, Menteith, where, as we have seen, the lease
of certain lands had been granted to her and her
sons. By the autumn of 1523 his health was so
far recruited that he was able to take his share in
a great expedition against England organised by
the Regent Albany.1 This was the only occasion,
so far as we know, in which Buchanan actually bore
arms, yet it is clear that he had in him something
of the stuff of which soldiers are made. In his old
age he recalls that he joined the expedition with the
desire of becoming acquainted with the art of war ;
and in his History, written also in advanced years
and broken health, he invariably speaks of battle
as one who had known great soldiers, and who had
himself felt something of the glow of battle. The
words in which he dedicates his Jephthes to the
1 VitaSua.
34
MILITARY EXPEDITION. 35
Marechal de Brissac, with whom he afterwards
came to live on terms of intimacy, are also a
curious comment on this side of his character. He
says in effect that a great soldier must of necessity
have all the gifts that make a great writer, and
maintains that it is a popular delusion to suppose
that there is any inherent antagonism between war
and letters.1
It will be remembered that on the death of
James iv. at Flodden, his widow, the sister of
Henry vin., had been appointed Regent during the
minority of her son. By her marriage with the
Earl of Angus, however, she had forfeited the con-
fidence of the Scottish Estates ; and in 1515 the
Regency had been transferred to the Duke of
Albany, High Admiral of France, son of the
brother of James in. By the appointment of
Albany, the influence of France in the affairs of
Scotland became such as to excite the fear and
jealousy of Henry. By force and diplomacy alike,
therefore, Henry did his utmost to gain the ascend-
ency in the government of Scotland ; and by way
of retaliation, Albany had in the autumn of 1522
made an ineffectual invasion of England.
Of the expedition in which Buchanan was
engaged he has himself given an account in the
fourteenth book of his History of Scotland. In
1523, during the absence of the Regent in France,
the troops of Henry vin. made one of the merciless
English invasions of Scotland. On the news of this
invasion Albany had hastened to return to Scot-
land, making sure he would now have the support
1 " Neque enim inter rei militaris et literaruin studium ea est, quani
plerique falso putant, discordia."
36 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of the Scots to a man against England. A great
muster of troops was held on the Boroughmuir,
near Edinburgh, and the Regent marched to the
Border with the intention of avenging the disaster
of Flodden and the late unprovoked invasion. As
the expedition is both interesting in itself, and is
a sufficiently picturesque incident in the career of
a scholar, its history may be told in Buchanan's
own words. The account he gives of Wark Castle
is, according to Tytler, " valuable, as, with little
variation, it presents an accurate picture of the
Scoto-Norman castles of the period 'V
" When the French auxiliaries, whom the Regent
had brought with him, were again fit for service,
he levied an army of Scots, and with his united
forces proceeded to the Border towards the end of
October, with the intention of invading England.
He had marched as far south as Melrose, and had
led the greater part of his army across a wooden
bridge which there spans the Tweed,2 when the
Scots, alleging the same reasons as on the occasion
of the expedition to the Solway, refused to pass
the Border. Recrossing the river, he marched a
short distance down the left bank, and taking up
his position directly opposite Wark Castle, pro-
ceeded to carry it by storm. A body of cavalry
despatched across the river prevented relief from
that quarter, and the adjoining country was laid
waste with fire and sword. The castle consists
1 Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. ii. chap. vii.
2 Professor Brewer (Reign of Henry VIIL, vol. i. p. 557) corrects
Buchanan for saying that Albany threw a bridge across the Tweed. But
Buchanan makes no such assertion. He distinctly states that the bridge
already existed.
MILITARY EXPEDITION. 37
of a tower of unusual strength surrounded by a
double wall. Between the two walls there is a
court of considerable extent, where in times of
war the country-people of the neighbourhood take
refuge with their property. The inner wall encloses
a much smaller area, and is rendered still more for-
midable by a moat and the turrets that surmount it.
The outer court was at once carried by the French
auxiliaries ; but the English garrison, setting fire to
the straw in the barns, deprived them of their tem-
porary advantage. During the next two days a
constant cannonade was kept up against the inner
wall, and a breach being at length effected, the
French made a second gallant attempt to bear all
before them. The keep itself, however, was still
unharmed, and the garrison poured a steady fire on
their assailants. After the loss of a few of their
companions, the French were again forced to retire
to the main body, and recrossed the river. The
Regent now saw that with the Scots in their present
state of mind an invasion of England was out of
the question. Moreover, he had certain informa-
tion that a large English force (if we may believe
the English historians themselves), consisting of
40,000 fully equipped soldiers, besides a garrison
of 6000 left at Berwick, was on the march against
him. Accordingly, on the llth November, he re-
moved his camp to Eccles, some six miles distant.
Thence, in the third watch, he made a night's
march to Lauder, in an unexpected snowstorm,
which told heavily on man and beast. The English
suffered equally from the inclemency of the weather,
and were forced to retire and disband their forces."
3$ THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
As the result of this freak, Buchanan was bed-
ridden during the rest of the winter.
Buchanan had still at least a year's study to
complete before he could gain his bachelor's certi-
ficate. It is to be remembered that the medieval
universities, looking to the Pope as their general
head, made one great society, existing on the same
conditions, and sharing common privileges. Studies
at one university were recognised by all the rest,
and degrees conferred by one conveyed equal rights
in the others. The multiplication of universities
during the fifteenth century had necessitated a
certain modification of this state of things. Thus,
in Paris it was made a condition of licence that a
student must either have " determined " at Paris,
or at some university which counted at least twelve
regents.1 It was not likely, however, that studies
at a university of such immense repute as Paris
should not be recognised by any of the universities
of Scotland. In the spring of 1525, therefore,
Buchanan proceeded to St. Andrews to complete
his first stage in the curriculum of Arts. He was
specially sent there, he tells us, to sit at the feet of
John Major.2 Logic was the part of his course to
which he had now to devote himself; and, as it
happened, there was no logician in Europe who had
a greater name than Major.
In his own generation John Major was hardly less
famous than was Buchanan himself in the genera-
tion that followed. It was Major's misfortune that
he came at the close of an era, and that he never
divined the true direction where the best interests
of the future lay. Born near North Berwick in
1 Thurot, p. 52. 2 Vita Sua.
JOHN MAJOR. 39
1470,1 he had in the course of a life wholly devoted
to study made himself a storehouse of all the learn-
ing of the Middle Ages. He had studied at Oxford,
and also at Cambridge, where he tells us that " on
feast-days he lay awake many a night to listen to the
melody of the bells ".2 In Paris he completed his
course in Arts at the College Ste. Barbe, taking his
final degree in 1494.3 As his aim was to become
doctor in theology, he entered the College Mon-
taigu, which, under the administration of one of
the most remarkable men of his time in Paris, Jean
Standonck, had become one of the first schools in
that faculty. The College Montaigu, we have seen,
was the stronghold of scholastic studies, and for his
adoption into this college Major was indebted to the
one man in Paris who beyond all others was noted
for the sheer ferocity of his hatred of the new learn-
ing and the new religion — Noel Beda, afterwards
Syndic of the University.4 It marks at once Major's
type of mind and the character of his thinking that
he speaks of the College Montaigu, which Erasmus
held up to the ridicule of Europe, as "his true
nursing-mother, ever to be named by him with
veneration".5 Having taken his doctor's degree
in 1505, he continued to teach the scholastic logic
1 There is some uncertainty as to the exact date of Major's birth.
As he took the doctor's degree in theology in 1505, and as he could not
do this before the age of thirty-five, this gives us 1470 as the date of his
birth. This degree conferred important privileges, so that it is unlikely
he would defer taking it. Buchanan speaks of Major in 1525 as being
in extrema senectute. But in the sixteenth century, as we have said
elsewhere (Appendix A), a man at fifty was considered aged.
2 Major, De Gestis Scotorum, lib. iii. cap. i.
3 As has been already said, Major's name occurs in the list of licen-
tiates given in the account of the German Nation referred to above.
4 Major, In secundum Sententiarum Commentarius.
5 Major, In primum Sententiarum Commentarius.
40 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
and theology till about 1518.1 As a teacher he
speedily took his place among the first of his
day in Paris. His scholars spoke of him in terms
which, with every reservation, prove him to
have been a man both of unusual power of mind
and commanding personal character. One of his
pupils,2 himself a leading figure in the scholastic
world of Paris, speaks of him in the following
manner so characteristic of the period : " The true
Gorgonian horse is Pegasus, and Pegasus is that
incomparable master in arts and philosophy, whom
I am unable to praise according to his merits, my
master John Major, who, by the aid of his own
wings, flies higher than the wings of the wind
could carry him, till he surpasses all other spirits in
sublimity."3 Besides teaching, Major wrote volu-
minously on all the subjects which still had an
interest for the upholders of the old order. It was
during these years in Paris also that he wrote the
only book which of all his productions retained any
value or interest almost from the date of his own
death. This was his combined History of Scotland
and England, written by 1518, and published in
Paris in 1521. This History is written in the ex-
traordinary Latin with the perverse logical forms
of the schoolmen, yet to the modern student it has
an interest far beyond the insipid elegance of many
of the humanists who came to sneer at its author.
Under all its strange limitations of thought and
1 In 1498 the temporary exile of Standonck disorganised the
College Montaigu. Major, therefore, while still remaining a member
of that College, gave his lessons in the College Navarre. Launoy, Regii
Navarrae Gymnasii Historia, lib. iii. cap. xix.
2 Robert Cenalis.
:! Quoted by Quicherat, vol. i. p. 97.
STUDIES AT ST. ANDREWS. 41
uncouthness of movement, Major's History reveals
an individuality of character, a clearness and force
of intelligence, that fully explain to us the extra-
ordinary impression he made on his own time. In
1518 we find him professing in the University of
Glasgow, where he remained probably till 1523,
when he removed to St. Andrews to act as teacher
of logic and philosophy.
In 1525, Buchanan, with his brother Patrick,
matriculated at the University of St. Andrews,1 and
was enrolled as a member of what was then known
as the Paedagogium, where Major was acting as
one of the regents in Arts. This Institution
had been the nucleus of the University of St.
Andrews.2 Till 1430, twenty years after its founda-
tion, the University was still unprovided with any
coUege or paedagogium, such as by the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries had revolutionised the
University of Paris. During those years schools
were opened simply where convenient premises could
be obtained — the result being, as in the case of
Paris itself, increasing confusion and inefficiency.3
In 1430 Wardlaw, Bishop of St. Andrews, granted
to the Faculty of Arts a separate tenement where
its studies might be conducted.4 From the terms
of the grant it is difficult to understand whether
this Paedogogium was founded on the model of those
1 Buchanan is among those who paid sixpence at matriculation.
Some paid eightpence, and others are marked pauper. By this last
designation is meant those who were unable to pay the usual fee.
2 The name Paedagogium, however, does not seem to have been
applied till after Bishop Wardlaw's grant. See Maitland Anderson, The
University of St. Andrews, a Historical Sketch, p. 7.
3 Principal Lee, Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland,
vol. i. p. 16 note.
* Lyon, History of St. Andrews, Appendix, p. 229.
42 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
in Paris, or consisted simply of class-rooms set apart
for the different regents.1 The Paedagogium does
not seem to have prospered, as in 1512 it is de-
scribed as " nearly ruined through the defect of its
constitution and the want of learned men ".2 In
that year Archbishop Stewart, the natural son of
James iv., engaged himself to endow the Paedagogium
and erect it into a college ; but his death at Flodden
the following year prevented his carrying his purpose
into effect.3 About the date when Buchanan came
to St. Andrews the number of all the supposts4 of
the University averaged from 150 to 200, and in the
year of his own matriculation the number of fresh
students was 76. The fame of Major had doubtless
drawn students to St. Andrews, who, like Buchanan
himself, might have gone more . conveniently else-
where. But though Buchanan then saw St.
Andrews at its best, and with the lustre of a famous
teacher in its schools, it must have seemed a poor
enough place after the magnificent endowments of
Paris. All that John Major in his notice of the
Scottish Universities has to say of St. Andrews, the
most famous of the three, is contained in a single
sentence, written, however, before he himself had
come there. He speaks of it as a university
"towards which no one has as yet dealt with any
liberality, except James Kennedy, who founded one
small but rich and handsome college ".5
1 From the extent of the buildings the paedagogium probably con-
sisted only of class-rooms. It is to be noted, however, that such an
institution did not correspond to the paedagogium of Paris. — Thurot,
p. 95 ; Jourdain, Excursions Historique, etc., p. 262. I have to thank
Professor Seth for his kind assistance on various points connected with
St. Andrews.
2 Lyon, Appendix, p. 254. 3 Ibid.
4 The supposts were all those in any way connected with the univer-
sity. 8 Major, De Gestis Scotorum, lib. i. cap. vi.
STUDIES AT ST. ANDREWS. 43
The teaching of Major was little to the mind
of Buchanan. More than half a century after-
wards he spoke of his old master as " teaching the
art of sophistry rather than dialectics ".* When
Buchanan wrote thus, at the very close of his life, it
was doubtless with a vivid consciousness of years of
bitter conflict with the system which Major had
incarnated for him in his youth. At the same time,
we can have no doubt _that Buchanan found such
teaching as Major's as unprofitable as Erasmus had
found it at the College Montaigu. Buchanan's own
countryman, Florence Wilson, a humanist like him-
self, speaks in the same tones of disgust at his early
training in the dialectics of the schoolmen.2 Even
when his reputation was at its height, Major was
already the mark for the wit of the men of the
new order. Melanchthon had selected him as a
special object of his attack in his reply to the cen-
sure of the Sorbonne on the opinions of Luther.
" I have seen John Major's Commentaries on Peter
Lombard," he says. " He is now, I am told, the
prince of the Paris divines. Good heavens ! What
wagon-loads of trifling ! What pages he fills with
disputes whether there can be any horsemanship
without a horse, whether the sea was salt when God
made it. If he is a specimen of the Parisian, no
wonder they have so little stomach for Luther." A
few years later Major was pilloried for all time by
one greater than Melanchthon — Rabelais himself.
Among the books in the wonderful library at
1 Vita Sua.
2 " Primi aetatis gradus inihi consumpti simt in illoruin captiunculis
discendis ; cujus utinam temporis bona pars utriusque linguae studiis
impensa fuisset." — De Animi TranquiUitate, p. 250 (edit. Edin. 1751). It
is uncertain where Florence Wilson received his university training.
44 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
St. Victor's in Paris, Pantagruel found one entitled
The Art of making Puddings, by John Major.1
It has been suggested that Knox (who was a
student under Major at Glasgow) and Buchanan
owed at least their liberal opinions in politics to
Major. It is certainly true that Major held pre-
cisely the same views as his two pupils regarding
the claims of the people and the rights of kings.
But, as we shall have occasion to point out in deal-
ing with Buchanan's own political opinions, these
views must have come to Knox and Buchanan from
other sources than Major. Major himself, as we
shall see, was even in the liberality of his political
opinions still only the representative of the best
schoolmen.2
Of late years it has been conclusively shown that
what we know as scholasticism was in its own time
and place a perfectly rational system, yielding free
and healthy exercise to the best minds of the Middle
Ages. If the world outgrew it, and it degenerated
of itself into sheer futility, it only followed the
course of all great movements that at different
periods have absorbed the minds and consciousness
of men. Humanism itself was not a century old
before its childish absurdities wrought something
like disgust in men of saner minds. As Erasmus
denounced the trifling of the later schoolmen, so he
held up to equal ridicule the Neo-Pagan develop-
ments of humanism and the superstitious worship
1 Livre ii. chap. vii. The point of Rabelais' jest is not quite evident.
Urquhart's characteristic note is hardly satisfactory.
2 Crevier speaks of Major as "a doctor famous for his attachment to
the principles of the University with regard to the power of the Pope ".
— Histoire de V Universite de Paris, vol. v. p. 82. Major was with certain
of the most eminent schoolmen in these opinions also.
STUDIES AT ST. ANDREWS. 45
paid to Cicero by the stylists of Italy. In the
pedantries of modern German erudition we have
the same evidence of an exhausted movement as we
find in scholasticism at the close of the fifteenth
century.1 The attitude of the modern man of
science towards classical studies has its exact parallel
in the attitude of the humanist of the Renaissance
towards the intellectual interests of the schoolmen.
Although the humanists were wrong in con-
founding the later follies of scholasticism with the
true intellectual movement of the Middle Ages, they
had ample reason for their contempt of what passed
for logic and philosophy in the later years of the
fifteenth century and the opening of the sixteenth.
It was in the name of right reason that they ridi-
culed the barbarous terminology, the triviality of
the matter taught, and the interminable hair-
splittings in its discussion. At the same time, it
is worthy of note that the humanists were not all
agreed as to the true attitude that should be taken
up towards the studies of the past age. Many of
them maintained that to break completely the con-
tinuity of public instruction would be fatal to the
best interests of learning and religion.2 There is
certainly excellent ground for maintaining that the
scholars of the sixteenth century would have ap-
proached classical literature in a more intelligent
spirit had they possessed something more of the
equipment of the best schoolmen.
1 Mr. Hill Burton relates that Professor Pillans was indignant to
find that Person had never read the Latin poetry of Buchanan. Porson
was persuaded to look at it, but flung the book from him in disgust on
discovering a false quantity. — Scot Abroad, vol. ii. Major thus had his
revenge for Buchanan's slighting mention of himself.
2 Schmidt, La Vie et les Travaux de Jean Sturm, p. 294.
46 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE BUCHANAN.
In October 1525 Buchanan graduated as Bachelor
of Arts. This was the same year as that in which
he had matriculated, so that his studies in Paris
must have been recognised by the Faculty of St
Andrews. His name appears in the second class of
graduates. As logic was the main subject of exami-
nation, we may regard this as another proof of his
distaste for the prelections of Major. The word
pauper stands opposite his name, as it does against
the names of the majority of his fellow-graduates.
The meaning of this term is not what his biographers
have hitherto assigned to it — an exhibitioner. All
that it implies is that Buchanan, on a satisfactory
plea of poverty, was excused the payment of the
customary fee on " determining " for his Bachelor's
certificate ; and, as we have seen, this was a common
practice in the University of Paris.
CHAPTER IV.
PARIS — THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE.
IN 1525 John Major returned to Paris, and the
next summer Buchanan followed him.1 As he had
now definitely made choice of the life of a scholar,
his course for the next few years was clearly marked
out for him. He had first to take the higher degree
in Arts, qualifying him to " regent " or teach in con-
nection with the University ; and having thus assured
a means of livelihood, he could proceed with his
studies in any of the three higher faculties. Such,
at least, was almost universally the career of students
who looked with an eye of prudence to some com-
fortable settlement as they approached middle life.
Maxims of prudence, however, never weighed much
with Buchanan at any period of his life ; and though
when he left Scotland on this second occasion he had
doubtless every intention of following the beaten
track, he had not been long in Paris before it was
brought home to him that such a course had for him
become impossible.
His first two years in Paris were passed mainly
in the Scots College. It is matter for the keenest
regret that at the French Revolution all the docu-
ments of this College were either dispersed or
destroyed. The College was founded in 1326 by
1 Vita, Sua.
47
48 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the then Bishop of Moray, who bought up the lands
of Grisy, a village near Paris, for its endowment.
It would appear that it was originally intended
only for the benefit of students from his own diocese.1
Soon, however, it was thrown open to the whole of
Scotland, and it was at this College and that of
Montaigu that Scotsmen were chiefly to be found
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It
has been inferred from an expression in Buchanan's
Autobiography that he owed to Major 2 his admis-
sion to the Scots College, and on this somewhat
doubtful ground he has been accused of ingratitude
for his contemptuous reference to his ancient master.
A nomination was, of course, required to the bur-
saries in a college, and it may be that Buchanan
owed this service to Major. We have seen, how-
ever, that Buchanan was no very distinguished
member of Major's class at St. Andrews; and if
Buchanan the youth in any degree resembled
Buchanan the man, we may feel certain that he
made little attempt to conceal his scorn for the
teaching of the old schoolman. It could hardly
have been as a favourite pupil, therefore, that
Buchanan deserved such a kindness at the hands of
Major. Moreover, if Buchanan followed Major to
Paris, it was not till the summer after the October
in which he graduated at St. Andrews. In view of
all this, therefore, the charge of ingratitude against
Buchanan may as well be abandoned till we have
clear proof of his actual obligation.
1 Mackenzie, Lives of Scottish Writers. Mackenzie states that
he had his information regarding the College direct from the University
of Paris.
2 Buchanan's words are : " hunc [that is, Major] in Galliam aestate
proxima sequutus."
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 49
These first two years in Paris, he tells us, were
passed in " hard struggle with untoward fortune "-1
As a bursar he received his board and education
free. The Scots College being one of the smaller
Paris colleges, its bursars would have to attend
classes elsewhere — probably in Buchanan's day in
one of the larger colleges, where externes or day-
scholars were received. But while he was in this
manner, as it would seem, completely provided for,
all that we know of these Paris colleges makes clear
to us that Buchanan's experience during these two
years was but the common experience of his fellow-
bursars. The food and accommodation, even of the
best-endowed colleges, were of the most wretched
description ; in the case of the poorer colleges the
fare was not only unwholesome but scanty. The
lodging was that of the worst slums in our large
cities. However generous may have been the
original endowments of a college, in most cases
poverty sooner or later overtook it. The deteriora-
tion in the value of money seriously affected the
weekly allowance of the poor bursar.2 The income
due from the property that formed the endowment of
a college was seldom regularly or fully forthcoming.
Moreover, as the bursars and the head of the college
were merely temporary residents, they had little
interest hi looking to its permanent efficiency.3 The
result of all this was that, especially in the case of
the minor colleges, the life of the bursar was in
simple truth exactly such as Buchanan describes
his own to have been.
1 " Biennium fere cum iniquitate fortunes colluctatus."
2 A sum of money (that fixed by his foundation) was given every
week to the bursar to meet his expenses.
3 Thurot, p. 129.
D
50 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
In March 1528 (at the earliest date possible,
therefore), Buchanan graduated master of arts, and
thus became qualified to act as regent. The next
year we find him on the teaching-staff of one of the
most flourishing colleges in Paris — that of Ste.
Barbe.1 As Buchanan acted as regent in this col-
lege for the next three years, and as, according to
its latest historian, he exerted an influence on its
teaching which affected the entire university, a
brief account of its history and internal arrange-
ment cannot be considered irrelevant.2
Two brothers, Geoffroi and Jean Lenormant, of
the College de Navarre, were in their own day
among the most famous professors in the schools of
Paris. Their fame attracted to Navarre a large
number of outsiders, for whom they had to provide
accommodation in five or six adjoining houses.
The bursars of the college, however, of whom a con-
siderable number were priests and men in mature
age, at length protested against the disturbance of
their privacy by such numbers of unruly scholars
coming and going at all hours. They carried their
point, and the two brothers left the college. Con-
fident in their popularity, the elder, Geoffroi, took a
bold step, and with no funds for the endowments
usual in such cases, he started the College of Sainte-
Barbe in 1460. The college received its name
from Saint Barbara, who was regarded as a kind of
1 Chalmers (Life of Ruddiman, p. 313, note) gives two entries rela-
tive to Buchanan from the registers of the Scots College, which were
communicated to him before the French Revolution. The one entry
states that Buchanan was incorporated as Bachelor of Arts in that
college in October 1527 ; the other that he graduated Master of Arts in
March 1528. It is possible that Buchanan remained in the Scots
College till his appointment as regent in Ste. Barbe.
2 For what follows regarding Ste. Barbe, I am indebted to Quicherat's
Histoire de Sainte-Barbe (Paris, 1860).
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 51
Christian Minerva in the Middle Ages. The name
may also have been partly suggested by the logical
term Barbara — a play of fancy, singularly charac-
teristic of the later tunes of the schoolmen.1 From
the very outset, the College had a run of good
fortune. A succession of distinguished teachers
drew to it a greater crowd than was to be found
in any other college except Montaigu, which, under
Jean Standonck, about the beginning of the sixteenth
century proved for a time its formidable rival. At
the beginning of the reign of Francis I. (1515), it
was said of Ste. Barbe that the Parliament was
made up of its pupils, that the faculties of theology
and medicine were mostly recruited from its ranks,
and that so many heroes issued from its bosom that
it might be fitly compared to the wooden horse
of Troy.
Shortly before Buchanan entered Ste. Barbe, it
had passed an important turning-point in its his-
tory. From the date of its foundation, students
from Spain had made an important contingent of
its scholars; but in 1526, some three years before
Buchanan became regent, the College was peopled
by a colony of Portuguese. During the reigns of
John II., Emmanuel, and John in., Portugal had
made extensive foreign acquisitions, and, as a
daughter of the Church, she was bound to do what
she could to extend the true faith wherever she
planted her flag. Large numbers of missionaries
were therefore required, and for the most part these
were sent to Paris, still the best school of sound
Catholic theology, for their training. At this time
one of the most distinguished men about the uni-
1 Cf. the Bokardo Tower at Oxford.
52 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
versity was Jacques de Gouvea,1 a Portuguese, the
first of this name of a number of scholars, who
played a pre-eminent part in the development of
the new studies. King Emmanuel was desirous
of securing this distinguished Portuguese for the
service of his own country. But Gouvda had a
more notable scheme in his head for the honour
and interest of Portugal. This was no less than
the purchase of Ste. Barbe for the Portuguese king,
and the settlement in that college of all the Portu-
guese who studied in Paris. The proprietor of
Ste. Barbe, however, a certain Robert Dugast, of
whom we shall hear again, would not listen to the
proposal of purchase, and Gouvea had to content
himself with renting the College in the name of the
King of Portugal. The Portuguese possession was
completed by the establishment of fifty bursaries
for the benefit of GouveVs countrymen.
But although Ste. Barbe thus became so dis-
tinctively a Portuguese college, it must not be
thought that Portuguese formed even a large pro-
portion of its scholars. To make this clear, some
account of the organisation of the medieval College
of Paris is necessary. It is to be remembered that
the university was already old before colleges grew
up in any number. Not, indeed, till the fourteenth
century did they become so numerous as to be a
distinctive feature of its life. We have no certain
knowledge of the numbers of students who at dif-
ferent periods attended the University of Paris ;
but how great they must have been we may gather
from the fact that in 1546, when Paris no longer
1 I give the French form of his name, as that by which he is best
known.
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 53
held its ancient place among the schools of Europe,
a Venetian ambassador reckoned that the attend-
ance must have been from sixteen to twenty thou-
sand.1 It was soon found that colleges met the
wants of students and teachers alike, that they
made discipline more possible, and that they added
vastly to the comforts of university life. The num-
ber of colleges, accordingly, grew rapidly, and by the
end of the fourteenth century there were no fewer
than forty. All these colleges were not, of course,
equally equipped. In many of them the students
simply boarded, going elsewhere for instruction.
In others only a part of the course requisite for
degrees in arts was supplied. A few only, known
as grands colleges, or colleges de plein exercice, gave
instruction in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy ;
and of these Ste. Barbe was one. In describing
Ste. Barbe, therefore, we are describing the fully
developed type of the mediaeval College of Paris.
In most of the colleges (though, as we have
seen, not in the case of Ste. Barbe), a band of
bursars formed the nucleus. In addition to these
bursars there were other students (convicteurs or
portionistes), boarding with the principal, who re-
ceived from their parents a stipulated sum for their
board and education. The regents, also, had the
privilege of receiving boarders (cam&ristes) in rooms
adjoining their own, and specially provided for the
purpose. In this relation the regents were known
as precepteurs particuliers or pedagogues. But the
bulk of the students in the grands colleges consisted
1 Jourdain, Excursions Historiques, etc., p. 261. The statement is
vague enough ; but it at least suggests how great the number of students
must really have been. Luther states that the number of students at
Paris was about 20,000. Alfred Franklin, La Sorbonne, p. 125.
54 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of students who frequented them only to receive
instruction. These students (martinets) had no
relations with the principal, and made their ar-
rangements solely with the regents whose classes they
might wish to attend. It was these martinets, a some-
what irresponsible body, who made the most unruly
element in the student life of Paris. A curious
section of these martinets were the galoches, so
called from the galoshes which they wore in winter.
These galoches, who have still their representatives
in the Paris of to-day, were men advanced in life
who sat through the classes from year to year with
no other intention than that of passing an idle hour.
Still another class of students — a peculiar feature
of medieval scholastic life — invariably made part
of the membership of a college. These were the
servitors, mostly young men of the humblest rank,
who did the menial work of the house, receiving
in return the privilege of attending whatever classes
they wished.
This large body of students was graduated, in
the case of Ste. Barbe, into fourteen classes, each
class being under the direction of its own regent.
The regents themselves were mostly young men
between twenty and thirty years of age, on the way
to become licentiates in the higher faculties. Their
engagement was only from year to year, and in
return for their services the principal guaranteed
them food and lodging in the college. Regents of
philosophy had a claim to benefices in the Church
after five years' teaching ; but this privilege was
not granted to regents of grammar and rhetoric till
1534.1 From their pupils all the regents received
1 Crevier, v. 286.
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 55
certain fees agreed upon, which were paid twice in
the year. As the natural result of this arrange-
ment, the regents were on much more friendly
terms with their pupils than with the principal.
In cases of insubordination they were as often as
not the aiders and abettors of their pupils. How
the various elements in these colleges held together
under a chief whose powers were so inadequate
may well excite our wonder. It is to be remem-
bered, however, that the privileges even of under-
graduates were so great that few cared to go to
such extremes in their defiance of authority as to
run the risk of losing them. Large numbers of
persons, indeed, actually enrolled themselves as
students for the sole purpose of obtaining these
privileges ; and in litigation it was always a point
with the parties to have a student's interests in-
volved in the case.
Of the hard fare, the coarseness, and even squalor
of the life in these colleges we have ample testimony
from many sources. Erasmus, Rabelais, and Mon-
taigne have alike spoken in the strongest terms of
the wretched conditions under which boys were
reared and educated. In the school-room the master
alone was seated.1 The pupils lay on straw littered
on the floor, and as their dress consisted of a gown
descending to their feet, we may imagine what
appearance they must have presented in the matter
of personal cleanliness, and we can also understand
the necessity of one of the rules of the College that
1 "About 1366 and about 1452," says Thurot, " benches for scholars
began to come into use ; but the cardinals Ste.-Cecile and d'Estouteville
put down this luxury as likely to have evil results, and insisted that the
scholars should be made to sit on the ground as formerly, so that they
might have no temptation to undue presumption." — P. 69.
56 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
" no student was to carry his hand to his bonnet in
time of meals." The spirit of the time showed itself
further in the brutal corporal punishments inflicted
on the most trivial occasion. According to Mon-
taigne— and his words are of universal application
at the time of which we are speaking — schools were
the veritable prisons of captive youth, and when
you approached one of them you heard nothing
but " cris d'enfants suppliciez et de maistres en-
yvrez en leur cholere V
In one of his earliest poems, which has not
merely a biographical interest, but is a document
of recognised value in connection with the history
of the university, Buchanan has himself given us a
vivid picture of the routine of a day's duties in the
college.2 It was written at the close of his connec-
tion with Ste. Barbe, and at a moment apparently
when he thought a brighter future was before him.
The poem is entitled " Of the wretched Condition of
the Teachers of Humane Letters in Paris ". It is,
therefore, the record of Buchanan's daily duties for
the space of three years. After some introductory
lines in which he bitterly contrasts the unprofitable
drudgery of the scholar and teacher with all other
pursuits, he tells how the unhappy regent has sat
far into the night over mouldy manuscripts, and
has at length, exhausted in mind and body, thrown
himself on his bed to snatch a few hours' sleep.
" No sooner," he proceeds, " has he stretched his
limbs than the watchman announces that it is
already the fourth hour. The din of the shrill
alarm chases away his dreams, and reminds him
that his rest is at an end. Hardly are things again
1 Essais, livre i. chap. xxv. * Eleg. i.
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 57
quiet, when five o'clock sounds, and the porter
rings his bell, calling the scholars to their tasks.
Then in all the majesty of cap and gown forth
issues the master, the terror of his charge, in his
right hand the scourge, in his left perchance the
works of the great Virgil. He seats himself, and
shouts his orders for silence till he is red in the
face. And now he brings forth the harvest of his
toil. He smooths away difficulties, he corrects,
he expunges, he changes the text, he brings to
light the spoils he has won by ceaseless study.
Meanwhile, his scholars are some of them sound
asleep, others thinking of everything but their
Virgil. One is absent, but has bribed his neigh-
bour to answer to his name at roll-call. Another
has lost his stockings, another cannot keep his
eye off a large hole in his shoe. One shams
illness, another is writing letters to his parents.
Hence the rod is never idle, sobs never cease,
cheeks are never dry. Then the duties of religion
make their call on us, then lessons once more, and
once more the rod. Hardly an hour is spared for
our meal. No sooner is it over than lessons again,
and then a hasty supper. Supper past, we con-
tinue our labours into the night, as if the day's
tasks, forsooth, had not been sufficient. Why
should I speak of our thousand humiliations ?
Here, for example, come the swarms of loafers
(errones)1 from the city, till the street echoes
with the noise of their pattens. In they scramble
to listen as intelligently as so many asses. They
grumble that no placards announcing the course
of lessons have been stuck on the street corners ;
1 These were the galoches above mentioned.
58 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
they are indignant that the doctrinal of Alexander l
is scornfully ignored by the master, and off they
run to Montaigu, or some other school more to their
taste. Parents also grumble that the days pass by,
that their sons learn nothing, and meanwhile the
fees must be paid."
Under such conditions it may seem wonderful
that teachers and pupils should have had any
vitality left for mischief or enjoyment. That they
had leisure and spirit for both, the annals of the
University amply prove ; and the picture of this old
student life can hardly be complete without some
illustration of this other aspect which is certainly
to the full as characteristic as the other. As a
specimen of its holidaying after Buchanan's own
account of its drudgeries we take the following from
one of the historians of the University : — " The feast
of Lendit," 2 says he, " was a day of feasting and
rejoicing for scholars and regents. This was the
period when their honorarium was paid by the
scholars, who having put their present in a purse or
in a lemon (citron) carried it in pomp to the sounds
of pipe and tabour. The same day a grand caval-
cade was formed to accompany the rector to St.
Denis. The supposts of the University, masters
and pupils in great number, assembled and ranged
themselves round their chief in the Place de Sainte
Genevieve, and thence all on horseback, marching
two abreast, with ensigns flying and tabours beat-
ing, they traversed the entire length of the town
until they arrived all in the same order at St. Denis,
1 A grammarian of the Middle Ages, for whom Buchanan, with the
rest of the humanists, had a supreme contempt. Cf. p. 64.
2 A fair held at St. Denis during June and July.
THE SCOTS COLLEGE AND SAINTE-BARBE. 59
the term of their journey. The excesses and scandals
which this ceremony occasioned led to the desire on
the part of most well-disposed people that this
custom should be abolished. But," adds he, " it is
not easy to suppress customs which favour licence."1
As one proof among a thousand of the readiness
for all manner of mischief on the part of the regents
and their scholars, we need go no further than the
page from which the foregoing extract is taken. The
passage also forcibly illustrates what has been said
above regarding the good understanding between
regents and students. " In 1539," 2 the same writer
continues, " the reform desired was as far off as
ever. The old licence was still maintained in full
vigour, and there arose out of it certain disorders in
the College of Ste. Barbe. In spite of the prohibi-
tion set forth by Parliament at the request of the
University, the regents of this College wished to
celebrate Lendit in the manner they had always
seen it celebrated ; and finding opposition in the
principal, Jacques de Gouvea, they forced the bar-
riers, sallied forth at the head of their scholars with
weapons and tabours, and returned in the same
manner. Gouve"a appealed to Parliament against
them, and obtained a judgment interdicting them
from their functions." In the end the University
recommended him to make peace with his refractory
subordinates.
1 Crevier, vol. v. p. 347.
2 That is, some six or seven years after Buchanan had left Ste. Barbe.
CHAPTER V.
REGENT IN SAINTE-BARBE AND PROCURATOR OF
THE GERMAN NATION.
IN passing from the Scots College to Ste. Barbe,
Buchanan had moved to one of the most liberal col-
leges in Paris.1 Under its principal, Jacques de
Gouve'a, the most radical reforms had been introduced
in the teaching of Latin and philosophy. The old
text-books in both these subjects had been aban-
doned, and many of the regents were men with all
the new ideals in studies and religion. Gouve'a him-
self was a devout Catholic ; but he seems to have
allowed a large licence of creed among his subordi-
nates. Several of these made their own mark on the
age, though they call for no special mention in the
biography of Buchanan. The names of two students
of Ste. Barbe, however, between 1520 and 1530, can
hardly be passed by without notice. These were
John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola, whom a curious
fate conducted to the same College at an interval
of a few years between these dates.
The College de la Marche has been usually named
as Calvin's first college in Paris ; but there is good
reason to believe that Ste. Barbe must claim the
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 152.
REGENT IN S AINTE -B ABBE. 61
honour.1 If Calvin was actually a student there, it
must have been in 1523, several years before
Buchanan became regent in the College. But Calvin
was again in Paris in 1533, and at this period there is
every probability that he and Buchanan may have
met. In that year those who favoured the doctrines
of Luther were especially energetic in Paris, and Cal-
vin was already recognised as one of the leading spirits
among them. He was also a visitor at Ste. Barbe,
and was on intimate terms with Antoine de Gouve"a
(the nephew of the Principal), whom he had
succeeded in imbuing with his own heresies. Cal-
vin's connection with Buchanan's college is further
marked by the well-known incident of his early life —
the affair of Nicolas Kopp. Kopp was one of the
regents of philosophy in Ste. Barbe, and mainly
through Calvin had been led to take the side of the
religious reformers. The year in which he took this
step, Kopp was appointed rector of the University,
and hi this capacity he had to preach a sermon
before its assembled members. Kopp followed the
usual custom, and preached a sermon expressly
written for him by Calvin, which set the entire uni-
versity by the ears. The result was that Calvin
and his convert had to flee for their lives. By 1533
Buchanan had left Ste. Barbe, but he was still in
Paris, and he himself expressly tells us that at this
period " he fell among the Lutheran sectaries ".2 It
is hardly possible, therefore, that he should not
have been familiar with the small circle of zealous
Lutherans,3 in which Calvin was so prominent a
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 207.
2 Vita Sua.
3 It is to be remembered that the religious reformers in France were
known as Lutherans till past 1540.
62 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
figure. It should be said, however, that in his lines
written long afterwards on the death of Calvin, he
gives no hint that they had ever held personal inter-
course.
In the beginning of 1528 Ignatius Loyola had
come to Paris, driving before him his faithful ass
laden with his books. He had first begun his studies
at the College Montaigu ; but in 1529 he had taken
up his residence in Ste. Barbe. His residence in
this College is connected with an incident which is
at once illustrative of his own spirit, and of the
manners of the time. Loyola had come to Paris for
the purpose of study ; but he could not resist the
temptation to make converts to his great mission.
Among these converts was a Spaniard named
Amador, a promising student in philosophy in Ste.
Barbe. This Amador Loyola had transformed from
a diligent student into a visionary as wild as him-
self, to the immense indignation of the university,
and especially of his own countrymen. About the
same time Loyola craved permission to attend Ste.
Barbe as a student of philosophy. He was admitted
on the express condition that he should make no
attempt on the consciences of his fellows. Loyola
kept his word as far as Amador was concerned, but
he could not resist the temptation to communicate
his visions to others. The regent thrice warned
him of what would be the result, and at length
made his complaint to the principal. Gouvea was
furious, and gave orders that next day Loyola should
be subjected to the most disgraceful punishment the
College could inflict. This running of the gauntlet,
known as la salle,1 was administered in the following
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 193.
KEGENT IN SAINTE-BABBE. 63
manner. After dinner, when all the scholars were
present, the masters, each with his ferule in his hand,
ranged themselves in a double row. The delinquent,
stripped to the waist, was then made to pass
between them, receiving a blow across the shoulders
from each. This was the ignominious punishment
to which Loyola, then hi his fortieth year, as a
member of the College, was bound to submit. The
tidings of what was in store for him reached his ears,
and in a private interview he contrived to turn
away GouveVs wrath. The next day after dinner,
when pupils and masters doubtless looked forward
with much satisfaction to the expected performance,
Gouve*a arose and announced the culprit's pardon, and
from that day Loyola became an inmate of Ste. Barbe.
As this was in 1529, the year of Buchanan's
entrance into Ste. Barbe, he must have been one of
the regents disappointed by Gouvea's announcement.
It is certainly odd to think that Buchanan, after-
wards the co-churchman of Knox, should so nearly
have missed the privilege of laying his ferule on the
bare shoulders of the founder of the Society of Jesus.
While there was this liberty of opinion in Ste.
Barbe, the advocates of reform in religion and edu-
cation were very far from having it all their own
way either in the university or even in Ste. Barbe
itself. Although we are now in the year 1529, it
was still only in a very few colleges that the new
methods in literature and philosophy had as yet
found a place. In 1530, after a delay of fourteen
years, mainly due to the University itself, the College
Royal was founded for the teaching of Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew. But to the end of the century the
university maintained the same attitude of hostility
64 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
and indifference, and not till the year 1600 did it by
formal decree assign a place to Greek in its curri-
culum of study.1 As the case of Descartes (born
1596) also shows, the medieval Aristotle held its
place in the schools of France till past the opening
of the seventeenth century. This obstinate an-
tagonism to all the new lights was mainly on the
part of the faculties of theology and law. The num-
bers and influence of the members of these faculties
put the fortunes of the University in their hands,
and their vested interests in the old order made
impossible for them the acceptance of the new.
Ste. Barbe, we have seen, was one of the most
advanced colleges in the University ; but in Ste.
Barbe itself, all the regents were not of the same
mind, and even the scholars offered formidable op-
position to any departure from the beaten track.
In the poem lately quoted, it is enumerated among
Buchanan's grievances that the galoches made com-
plaint that the grammar of Alexandre de Villedieu
was not used in the teaching of Latin. On the
subject of Latin grammars, indeed, the battle be-
tween the old and the new world was brought to
direct issue, and it was fought with a zeal and deter-
mination on both sides that had in it something of
the character of a religious war. The Rudiments of
the Latin Language, by Alexander of Villa-dei,
had been published in 1240, and up till 1514 it had
been the text- book in all the mediaeval universities.
It is a curious commentary on human nature that
men were still found far into the sixteenth century
who seriously maintained that the eternal welfare
of youth would be at stake if any other book were
1 Crevier, vol. vii. pp. 64, 65.
REGENT IN SAINTE-BABBE. 65
substituted for Alexander. This Grammar, drawn
up by a Franciscan monk of the thirteenth century,
is written in Latin verses, of which each word is
meant to suggest or recall some rule of syntax. As
originally composed, it was a lamentable enough
presentation of its subject ; but in course of time
it had become so overloaded with notes, that, in
Buchanan's day, it was simply a barbarous puzzle.
This subject of Latin grammars continued through-
out the whole century to be a source of trouble and
endless discussion among the humanists. As the
new learning continued to make way in the various
countries, numerous grammars appeared, with the
result of introducing considerable confusion into the
study of the language. In Scotland, long after-
wards, we shall find, in connection with Buchanan's
own history, that the multitude of Latin Grammars
was made a matter of serious discussion in relation
to educational reform.
The historian of Ste. Barbe affirms that to
Buchanan, along with two other scholars, belongs
the honour of introducing into that College " genu-
ine instruction in the classical languages".1 We
have no detailed information regarding Buchanan's
methods and degree of success in the conduct of his
class during his three years in Ste. Barbe ; but it
may be regarded as perfectly satisfactory proof of
his energy in the cause of the new learning, that in
1533 he published a Latin translation of Linacre's
Grammar. The very fact that he undertook such
a task proves not only his zeal in the cause of
education, but also that he had the courage to make
himself an object of dislike to the authorities of the
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 152.
E
66 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
University. It was published in Paris by Robert
Estienne, and ran through seven editions before the
end of the century. The book was dedicated to his
pupil, the young Earl of Cassillis, in a preface which
has the double interest of clearly setting before us
Buchanan's own point of view, as well as the
attitude of the obscurantists to the more rational
methods he so strenuously advocated. The trans-
lation was not published till after he had left Ste.
Barbe, but we may safely conjecture that Linacre's
Grammar had been the basis of his teaching there.
After highly commending the singular clearness,
method, and accuracy of Linacre's work, he thus
proceeds : " But I am perfectly aware that in trans-
lating this book many will think that I have given
myself quite unnecessary trouble. We have already
too many of such books, these persons will say ;
and moreover, they add, can anything be said worth
saying which is not to be found in authors who have
long enjoyed the approval of the schools "? As for
the novelties, which make a large part of this book,
such as the remarks on the declension of nouns, of
relatives, and certain moods and tenses of verbs,
they think them mere useless trifling. Such
criticism can come only of sheer ignorance or the
blindest prejudice, that will listen only to its own
suggestions, and gravely maintains that departure
from tradition in such matters is to be regarded as
a proof not so much of foolish self-confidence as of
actual impiety. From these persons, so wise in
their own conceit, I appeal to all men of real
learning and sincere love of letters, confident that
to all such Linacre will generally commend himself."
But it was not only in his capacity of regent
REGENT IN S AINTE- BARBE. 67
that Buchanan made himself felt in university
circles. Buchanan had an eager and lifelong inter-
est in education ; but, as will abundantly appear as
we proceed, he was in the first place, and distinc-
tively, a man of letters, with the very strong desire
and determination to make his voice heard in
whatever society he might find himself. It was at
this period that he began the habit of launching
those epigrams, which make such a considerable
portion of his work, at men and things that met his
disapproval. We have already sought to indicate
the general state of opinion in the University at
this particular epoch ; but the influences to which
Buchanan was now subjected will be still better
understood by considering the men whose sayings
and doings were, during these years, the talk of all its
schools. As representing almost all the various ten-
dencies in religion and literature, the names of Lefevre
d'fitaples, Brigonnet, Bishop of Meaux and Conserva-
tor of the Apostolical Privileges of the University,
Guillaume Bude, and Noel Beda, Syndic of the
University, were on the lips of every one interested
in the future of French religion and scholarship.
The name of d'fitaples, and the great work he
accomplished in rationalising University studies,
have already been noted. He had been forced to
leave Paris in 1525 ; but his example was still the
inspiration of those who aimed at reform in learning
and religion. Brigonnet was one of those unhappy
persons whom fate mocks with a mission beyond
their powers. His high birth had given him his
prominent position in the University, and, by senti-
ment rather than from reasoned conviction, he had
identified himself with humanism and reform. In
68 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
his bishopric of Meaux, in the neighbourhood of
Paris, he had introduced the religious reforms
advocated by d'J&taples, and had surrounded him-
self with a band of zealous supporters. But Bri-
9onnet was not of the stuff of which revolutionaries
are made. Brought face to face with the Parliament
and the Sorbonne, he consented to abandon the
cause he had undertaken.1 It must certainly count
for something in the different fortunes of religious
reform in France and Germany, that in the one
case its first champion was Bri§onnet, in the second,
Luther. Bri§onnet's submission had also taken
place in 1525, during the captivity of Francis, but
this victory of the Sorbonne had only the effect of
quickening the zeal of the more energetic advocates
of reform. Among these was Louis de Berquin,
who, according to Ranke, combined in happier pro-
portions than any other man then living the best
elements in the teaching of Luther and Erasmus.
At every point Berquin was opposed to the theo-
logical faculty, and his rash courage and high
accomplishments made him its most formidable
single adversary. From 1523 till 1529 the battle
went on between them, and Berquin, supported by
Francis, and especially by Francis's sister, the
famous Margaret of Navarre, had for a time seemed
even to have the advantage. Twice Francis rescued
him from the Parliament and the theologians ; but at
length he passed the limits of Francis's power or
desire to help him, and in 1529 he was burned at
the stake. The name of Bude carried with it
greater weight than that of any French scholar of
his day, and by his solid contribution to our know-
1 Graf, Jacques Lefevre d' Maples, p. 120.
REGENT IN S AINTE- BARBE. 69
ledge of classical antiquity, he is in the line of
Casaubon and the younger Scaliger rather than
that of the Italian stylists and their French
imitators of his own century. All Bude's influence
went to favour the new studies, and it was in great
measure his work that in 1530 the College Royal
was founded by Francis. Bude's position on the
question of religion was that of most of his fellow-
humanists. He ostensibly adhered to the traditions
of the Church, but the real interest of his life was
in the tradition of Greece and Rome.1 Noel Beda,
the last of the group above named, was the veri-
table incarnation of the scholastic theology, at a
tune when the life had gone out of it. " In one
Beda," says Erasmus, "there are three thousand
monks." He pursued every form of what he deemed
heresy with such inveteracy of hate, that, in the
opinion of his own party, he injured the very cause
he had at heart. It was by his efforts more than
by those of any one else that Bri§onnet had been
brought to submission and Berquin burned. At
last, in his indefatigable zeal, he persuaded the
theological faculty to condemn a book written by
the King's own sister. This passed the endurance
of Francis, and the University was compelled to
pass sentence of exile on its redoubtable champion.
It was with this Beda that men like Buchanan had
to reckon, when, by pen or tongue, they passed the
limits of what he deemed the traditions of the
Church in human and divine things.
1 Rebitte, Guillaume Bud4, Restaurateur des Etudes grecques en
France, p. 201. Buchanan has the following lines on Bud£ : —
Gallia quod Graeca est, quod Graecia barbara non est,
Utraque Biulaeo debet utrumque suo. — Epig. ii. 7.
70 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
In the conflict of opinion represented by the
names just mentioned it is interesting to note the
different courses taken by the three most eminent
literary Scotsmen then in France — John Major,
Florence Wilson, and Buchanan himself. Major,
we have seen, had returned to Paris in 1525, and he
was now teaching in the College Montaigu with a
reputation second to that of no doctor in Paris.1
His modes of thought have already been indicated,
and it is sufficient to say that at this moment
he was regarded as " the veritable chief of the
scholastic philosophy ".2 His former pupil and he,
therefore, were in opposite camps, and this at a time
when the strife between them was at its bitterest.
In all probability, it is to this period we must refer
Buchanan's famous epigram on his old master, for
which he has been blamed even by his own friends
and admirers. Sarcasm could hardly go further than
in this epigram ; yet, read without reference to the
circumstances in which it was written, and to the
licence of abuse which the Latinists of Buchanan's day
permitted themselves, it will lead to an utterly false
impression of Buchanan's character. From what
has been said, it must be clear that, in directing his
satire against Major, Buchanan was in reality doing
battle against the system which Major incarnated,
and which Buchanan, and those who thought with
him, were zealously bent on bringing to the ground.
But the truth is, that the standard of fair satire in
Buchanan's day was so different from our own, that
we should be utterly astray in inferring from this
epigram any real badness of heart in the writer. It
1 It is not quite certain when Major returned to Scotland. It must,
however, have been about 1530. 2 Quicherat, i. 97.
REGENT IN SAINTE-BABBE. 71
must be added that Major himself had tempted the
attack. In a spirit of somewhat affected humility
he had spoken of himself as Joannes solo cogno-
mine Major (" Major by name and not by nature ").
Buchanan's epigram is the merciless comment on
these words : —
Cum scateat nugis solo cognomine Major,
Nee sit in immense pagina sana libro :
Non mirum, titulis quod se veracibus ornat :
Nee semper mendax fingere Greta solet.
'"Major by name,' thou sayst, 'and not by nature ! '
The greatest liars sometimes speak the truth :
And in thy endless stream of idle chatter,
What wonder if thou once hast spoken sooth ! "
It is to be regretted that our knowledge of
Florence Wilson * is so scanty, as from all we know
of him he is among the most interesting of the
numberless literary " Scots Abroad ". A few years
Buchanan's senior, he had received his education
partly in Aberdeen and partly in Paris, and had
early been caught by the new ideals of the century.
He had acted as tutor to the nephew of Cardinal
Wolsey, was on familiar terms with Bishop Fisher,
and was afterwards attached to the train of Jean du
Bellay, Bishop of Paris. In accompanying du Bellay
to Home he made the acquaintance of Cardinal Sado-
leto in a manner which throws a curious light on
that enthusiastic community of feeling between
men of all ranks who were devotees of the new
learning. It is Sadoleto himself who relates the
incident in one of his letters.2 One evening he had
1 We have no authority for the name Florence Wilson. The name
always appears as Florentius Volusenus.
2 It should be said that Wilson had fallen sick at Avignon, on his
way to Eome with du Bellay. It may here be added that Buchanan pro-
bably met Wilson in Paris in 1531. We know that Wilson was there in
that year. — Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i . p. 325.
72 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
sat down as usual to his books, when his servant
announced that a stranger, by his gown evidently a
scholar, desired to see him. He was annoyed at
being disturbed, but he ordered the visitor to be
admitted. The Cardinal is at once arrested by the
stranger's address, and by the refinement and
choiceness of his Latinity. Questions then fol-
low. Whence did he come, where had he been
educated, what was his past history ? All is
answered satisfactorily, and meanwhile Sadoleto
is every moment becoming more and more charmed
by the modesty and evident accomplishments of
his visitor. The stranger's name, he learns, is
Volusenus, and he has come from Avignon to Car-
pentras, partly to see Sadoleto himself, of whose
fame he had heard so much, and partly to offer
himself for the post of Principal in the new school
of Carpentras, in which Sadoleto had taken such
interest. The Cardinal is delighted at the prospect
of having such a man in his neighbourhood. He
talks over the authorities, and Wilson is unani-
mously appointed to the post. Here Wilson re-
mained probably till 1544.1 Two years later, while
on his way home to Scotland, he died at Vienne in
Dauphind. Buchanan commemorates Wilson in
the following lines :—
Hie musis, Volusene, jaces carissime, ripam
Ad Khodani, terra quam procul a patria !
Hoc meruit virtus tua, tellus quae foret altrix
Virtutum, ut cineres conderet ilia tuos.
1 In 1544 Sadoleto wrote to Claude Baduel, Principal of the Gym-
nasium of Nismes, offering him the Principalship of his school at Car-
pentras. This would seem to show that Wilson had held that post, and
was not a simple regent. — Gaufres, Claude Baduel et la Reforme des
Etudes au xvi" siecle (Paris, 1880), p. 129.
BEGENT IN SAINTE-BARBE. 73
" Here by Rhone's banks (from thy own fields how far !),
Beloved of all the Muses, dost thou sleep :
Yet doth the land that did thy virtues rear,
Meetly, 0 Florence, thy dear ashes keep."
Wilson has left us a few Latin poems, and a
somewhat lengthy tract, entitled De Animi Tran-
quillitate, in the manner of the philosophical
treatises of Cicero. His poems have little merit as
poetry,1 and his treatise has nothing of Buchanan's
force of thought and impetuous rush of feeling.
But every page confirms the impression we receive
from Sadoleto's letter — the impression of dignity,
refinement, and moral elevation. In his Latin style
he is a greater purist than Buchanan, and he has
disparaging remarks on the Latinity of Erasmus.2
But the interest of Wilson's treatise lies mainly in
the fact that it curiously illustrates the struggle
in his mind between the good Catholic and the
humanist, caring everything for the choiceness of his
style and the genuine flavour of antiquity. After
he has devoted nearly three-fourths of his book to
maxims drawn from the Greeks and Romans, he
suddenly becomes conscious that all this has more
of the Pagan in it than the Christian, and straight-
way proceeds to unsay all he has been saying,
and ends in a strain of the soundest orthodoxy.
Wilson was a humanist, then, but a humanist
who, while keenly conscious of the shortcomings
of the Church, was still satisfied to remain within
its pale.3 In his case, as in the case of Buchanan,
we cannot but regret that by his humanistic culture
1 Wilson himself tells us that he had not the advantage of being
trained to verse-making in his youth like Buchanan. — De Animi Tran-
quillitate, p. 165 (edit. Edin. 1751).
2 De Animi Tranquillitate, p. 250.
3 "Nobis Ecclesiae auctoritas semper plurimi est facLenda." — Ibid.
p. 251.
74 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
his character and talent were lost to his native litera-
ture. He would have been one more of that type
which in Scotland has not had too many represen-
tatives— a type which Henryson in the fifteenth
and Leighton in the seventeenth century so finely
illustrate.
In Buchanan's case we have for this period no
such definite expression of opinion as in the case of
Major and Wilson. He tells us, indeed, that at
this time " he fell among the Lutheran sectaries" ;l
but this certainly cannot imply that he now defin-
itely embraced the opinions of Luther, or that he
formally broke with Catholicism. Equally from the
general tenor of his life, and from the various poems
he was continually throwing off, we are forced to
the conclusion that not at least till near his final
return to Scotland about 1560 did he throw in his
lot with the religious reformers. At this time there
were many Lutherans in Paris, and there were few
of the Colleges without some members who in
greater or less degree favoured their doctrines.
But as far as Buchanan is concerned it will abun-
dantly appear as we proceed that any seeming in-
clination to side with Luther against the Pope must
be traced to his detestation of the dogged obscurant-
ism of the Sorbonne, and the general ignorance
and degradation of the clergy. In short, till 1560
Buchanan's attitude towards the Church was that
of Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More.2 It is difficult
to determine the exact periods when the poems
that make up the collection entitled Fratres Frater-
1 " In flammam Lutheranae sectae, jam late se spargentem, incidit."
— Vita Sua.
2 And we may add Bud6 himself, who speaks as strongly as Eras-
mus and Buchanan against the ignorance and degradation of the clergy.
— Rebitte, Vie de Budt, p. 237.
REGENT IN SAINTE-BARBE. 75
rimi were written, but in none of them, even in
those where the satire is bitterest, is there anything
to indicate that he had broken with the central
doctrines of the Church.
The futility of the instruction that still predomi-
nated in the Paris schools, the ignorance and profli-
gacy of those who made the loudest professions of
orthodoxy — these were the subjects that now filled
Buchanan's mind and exercised his wit. His epi-
gram on Major shows us his contempt for the effete
scholasticism ; the following shows his regard for its
champions. It is directed against one Gonellus,
a Dominican and member of the Sorbonne : " Gonel-
lus, who has a paunch like a balloon, one day heard
the old remark that truth lies hid in wine. ' What !'
exclaims he, ' have I wasted all my precious years
in these tedious and silly wranglings of the Schools ?
Good-bye, my grim Sorbonne ; not with you, as I
now learn too late, does truth abide. But hail !
goodly taverns, the true and only homes of wisdom.'
And from that hour our good Gonellus does nothing
but sound the depths of wine-jars. He drinks by
night, and he drinks by day. At length, having
drained his purse in draining casks, he thus sums
up the result of his researches : ' I know nothing,
and I possess nothing,' and solacing himself with
this pretty jest, he boasts that he is as wise as
Socrates." l We may conceive how the august
Sorbonne must have regarded Buchanan when jests
like this went the round of the colleges.
1 If we may believe Rabelais, the doctors of the Sorbonne must have
had a reputation as bons vivants. We have seen how he assigns to
Major a book entitled The Art of malting Puddings. To Beda himself
he ascribes a work in the same library of St. Victor — De Optimitate
Triparum.
76 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Buchanan had not been long in Ste. Barbe before
an honour was conferred on him which proves that
he was among the most prominent of the younger
men then frequenting the University. On the 3d of
June 1529 he was elected Procurator of the German
Nation — an honour which would have befallen him
a month earlier had the Germans who made part of
the Nation not voted against the English and Scots.1
The arrangement of Nations, with their Pro-
curators, arose naturally out of the metropolitan
character of the mediaeval universities. From the
twelfth century students had flocked to Paris from
every country of Europe ; and those who came from
the same country and spoke the same language
naturally drew together, and formed a body as
distinct as the conditions of university life would
permit. In course of time it was seen that this
natural arrangement formed a suitable basis for
regular organisation, and accordingly so early as
1245, in a Bull of Innocent iv., the four Nations of
France, Normandy, Picardy, and England are dis-
tinctly recognised. These four nations and the
superior Faculties of theology, law, and medicine,
made up what were known as the seven "com-
panies " of the universities ; and it was the pro-
curators of the Nations and the deans of the
Faculties, who, with the rector as president, con-
stituted the university tribunal. The English
Nation was composed of three tribes — Germany,
Scandinavia, and the British Islands, and for its
patron saints it had Charlemagne and St. Edmund.2
1 Archives of the University of Paris, Register 16, fol. 169 and 170.
See Appendix B.
2 This is the King Edmund commemorated in the name St. Edmunds-
bury. See Major, De Gestis Scotornm, lib. iii. cap. i.
PROCURATOR OF THE GERMAN NATION. 77
Of its schools we have already spoken. During the
Hundred Years' War between England and France,
the name " English Nation " became an offence in
French ears, and in 1378 the Emperor Charles iv.,
then on a visit to Paris, expressed the wish that
the name should be changed. It was not, however,
till 1436 that the designation "German Nation"
displaced the other in the University Registers.1
At the time that Buchanan became its procurator the
German Nation in Paris was no longer so important
a body as it had formerly been. Some years later
the schism of England from Rome, and the religious
dissensions in Germany, largely reduced its members ;
and it is a fact of curious interest, as showing what
rending of the peoples had ensued from the general
breach with Rome, that in 1541 there was but one
member of the German Nation in Paris.2
The office of procurator could be held only for
one month, but in the event of his giving satisfac-
tion to the Nation, the same person was frequently
re-elected several times in succession. Buchanan's
predecessor in office, Robert Wauchope, also a Scots-
man, who had a remarkable career in his day, was
re-elected nine times in succession,3 Buchanan him-
self four times.4 The duties of the office consisted in
looking after the money affairs of the Nation, in pre-
siding at its meetings, and in reporting their decisions
to the general council of the University. In the
register of the German Nation Buchanan has left a
memorial of his term of office which at once gives us
1 Jourdain, Excursions Historiques et Philosophiques, p. 366.
2 Crevier, vol. v. p. 367.
3 Chalmers, Life of Ruddiman, p. 313. Chalmers's authority is the
Register of the Scots College.
4 Archives of the University of Paris. See Appendix B.
78 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
a curious glimpse into the scholastic life of Paris,
and reveals his own sarcastic habit.
Robert Dugast, who has already been men-
tioned as the proprietor of Ste. Barbe, was at this
time one of the most remarkable among the prin-
cipals of the colleges of Paris. He seems to have
been a man of unusual ability and force of charac-
ter, and open, moreover, to all the new lights
of the time ; but he was greedy and overbearing
to absurdity. From his uncle he had inherited
the College Coqueret and the College de Reims,
and by unscrupulous dealing he had made him-
self owner of Ste. Barbe.1 As the result of all
this, he was detested by every member of the
University, and complaints were being constantly
lodged against him. It is one of these complaints
that Buchanan signalises in the following entry :—
"Pierre Tillier, regent of the College Coqueret,
has presented a request to the Faculty of Arts, in
the name of a certain colleague unjustly imprisoned
by the criminal lieutenant, and also in the name of
a certain pedagogue detained in the official prison
at the instance of the principal of the above-named
College, a man detestable by his harshness and
avarice — their crime being that they ate a penny
loaf belonging to the said principal. The German
Nation, on this point in accordance with the whole
Faculty, has charged Master Martin Dolet to demand
the liberation of the prisoners ; and as regards the
said principal, it declares him fallen from all Uni-
versity privileges, as having violated the statutes
which forbid any member of the University to be
cited before any court whatever before the rector
1 Quicherat, vol. i. chap. xxix.
PROCURATOR OF THE GERMAN NATION. 79
has been made acquainted with the affair. Further,
the entire Faculty has declared the said principal
guilty of insubordination, and has charged the
censors of the Nation to visit the College Coqueret,
and to use their authority to re-establish order." l
In other entries relating to this Dugast, Buchanan
similarly enlivens his formal official record. Thus,
another regent is mentioned as " desiring to recover
by legal process certain articles of furniture which
he declares to be detained by that rapacious harpy
Master Robert Dugast, whom the same regent cited
before the Faculty. But the above-named principal,
with his usual obstinacy, failed to appear." From
all we know of this Dugast he seems to have fully
deserved the worst that Buchanan has said of him.
The year following his procuratorship, 1530, a
new University honour was conferred on Buchanan.
In one of the elections of the rector during that
year, it fell to the Scottish section to choose the
elector who should represent the German Nation,
and on the motion of their countryman, Robert
Wauchope, they unanimously fixed on " that able
man, so learned in Latin and Greek, Master George
Buchanan." 2 The next dignity would have been the
rectorship itself; but Buchanan had identified him-
self far too prominently with the new movements
in the University, and cast his witticisms about
much too freely, to make it possible that the four
Nations should choose him as their head.
Buchanan probably resigned his post in Ste.
Barbe somewhere in 1531 ; and the concluding lines
1 See Appendix B.
2 Archives of the University, Reg. 16, fol. 184. The reference to
Buchanan's acquaintance with Greek is noteworthy. In Greek, as will
afterwards be seen, he appears to have been self-taught.
80 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of the elegy in which he gives the account already
quoted of his duties as regent, seem to commemorate
this step : *-
Ite, igitur, Musae steriles, aliumque ministrum
Quaerite : nos alio sors animusque vocat.
We may readily believe that Buchanan, with his
fastidious temper and his poet's sensibility, must
have found in the highest degree uncongenial that
dismal routine he has so vividly described. We
may fairly conjecture, indeed, that under the
happiest circumstances the profession of regent or
tutor, which he was thenceforth to follow, could
never have been grateful to him. It is almost as
easy to think of Heine or Swift or Burns yoked to
this profession, and finding it their true function, as
Buchanan. His health was never robust, and by
his mental constitution he had the irritability of the
poet and man of letters. We must therefore set it to
his credit that, with his late experience behind him,
he chose the mode of life he did, when by a little
compromise he might have found in the Church some
comfortable benefice that would have enabled him
to cultivate his muse in peace. That the tempta-
tion came to him we have some reason to believe.
But he was too deeply moved by the new ideals of
the time in religion, in literature, in politics, to
make the compromise without injury to his best
self. Accordingly, as we believe, he made what for
a man of his type is the highest sacrifice he can pos-
sibly make. He sacrificed the life that would have
yielded him the best opportunity of cultivating his
special talent.
1 He acted as regent in Ste. Barbe for three years. — Vita Sua.
PROCURATOR OF THE GERMAN NATION. 81
The engagement on which Buchanan entered on
leaving Ste. Barbe was one of a kind becoming every
day more common with his .fellow-humanists — that
of tutor or companion to the member of some dis-
tinguished house. For those out of sympathy with
the Church, and with no predilection for medicine or
law, this was perhaps the most comfortable position
in which they could find themselves.1 Its one great
drawback was that, in most cases, such an engage-
ment could only be temporary. The wandering
propensities of the scholars of the Renaissance have
often been noticed. Yet in many cases it must
have been as much from necessity as choice that
they so frequently changed their abode. None of
them made more frequent migrations than Buchan-
an himself, and in his case there seems always to
have been sufficient reason for each new flight —
now the expiry of an engagement, now sickness,
now personal risk on account of opinions.
Buchanan's pupil was the Earl of Cassillis, to
whom, as we have seen, he dedicated his translation
of Linacre's Grammar in 1533. The young Earl's
father, the second Earl of Cassillis, had been assassi-
nated in 1527, and his son, then a boy of twelve,
had been placed under the guardianship of his
uncle, William Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel.2
Buchanan's pupil, Knox tells us, was one of those
children of the nobility made to sign the death-
warrant of Patrick Hamilton in 1528.3 In 1530
Abbot William obtained a royal licence to pass to
1 The only other occupation for scholars in Buchanan's position was
that of assistant to one of the great printers of the time.
2 Charters of the Abbey of Crossraguel, xxxvii.
3 Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland (Laing's edition),
vol. i. p. 16.
F
82 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Rome by way of France ; l and it is probable that
his nephew accompanied him on this journey, as
Buchanan seems to have been acquainted with him
before he became his tutor.2 It was probably in
1532 that the engagement actually began, and it
lasted for the next five years.
Cassillis' long residence in Paris for the sake
of his education may be taken as one proof,
amongst many, that the Scottish nobility had in
some degree realised that the period of feudalism
was past, and that other accomplishments were now
required of a baron than those which satisfied old
Bell-the-Cat. Cassillis came to be one of the pro-
minent Scottish nobles in the protracted regency
that followed the death of James v., and we may
believe that his five years' intercourse with a man
like Buchanan must have placed him at some ad-
vantage with his brother barons, both in Scotland
and England. In 1558 Cassillis was chosen as one
of the Commissioners to represent Scotland at the
marriage of Mary with the Dauphin, and on his way
home he and other three of his fellow-commissioners
died suddenly at Dieppe, under strong suspicion of
having been poisoned by the Guises. Buchanan
has celebrated his pupil in the following lines : —
Hie situs est heros humili Gilbertus in urna
Kennedus, antiquae nobilitatis honos :
Musarum Martisque decus, pacisque minister,
Et columen patriae consiliumque suae.
Occidit insidiis fallaci exceptus ab hoste,
Bis tria post vitae lustra peracta suae.
Parce, hospes, lacrymis, et inanem comprime luctum,
Non misere quisquam, qui bene vixit, obit.3
1 Charters of the Abbey of Crossraeuel, xxxvii. 2 Vita Sua.
3 Epig. ii. 9. As Cassillis was a little over forty at the time of his
PROCURATOR OF THE GERMAN NATION. 83
A passage in his History, in which he represents
Cassillis as playing the part of another Regulus,
deserves to be quoted, not only for its interest in
the present connection, but also as a curious speci-
men of what has found its way into history in
the guise of the soberest truth. It should be said
that Cassillis had been taken prisoner by the
English at Sol way Moss, and allowed to return to
Scotland, though for very different reasons from
those assigned by Buchanan. In the following
paragraph we have an account of the debate that
arose after an interview between the Regent Arran
and the English Ambassador, who, on behalf of his
master, had demanded a new set of hostages : —
" The new hostages were refused ; but a ques-
tion of no less importance arose. What of those
nobles (such as Cassillis) who had been made
prisoners at Solway Moss, and who had been
liberated only after they had left hostages behind
them, and given a solemn pledge that, in the event
of the favourable overtures on the part of Henry
not being accepted by the Scots, they would of
their own accord return to England ? The Car-
dinal's [Beaton's] faction, and the clergy generally,
plied the nobles with arguments and precedents to
prove that, where the interests of one's country are
at stake, goods, kinsfolk, children, everything that
one holds dear, must be lost sight of. The decree
of the Council of Constance was adduced, which
distinctly laid it down that no faith is to be kept
death, Ruddiman thought that the above epigram must apply to the
father, who also died by violence. But the line
" Musarum Martisque decus, pacisque minister"
seems naturally to apply to Buchanan's pupil. The misstatement of his
age need not be regarded too seriously.
84 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
with heretics. The majority of the nobles, whom
this question concerned, readily accepted these ex-
cuses for their treachery. One only of their num-
ber was found, who could neither be won by bribes
nor be constrained by threats to break his pledged
word. This was Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassillis.
He had left two brothers in England as hostages ;
and now he declared that nothing would induce
him to save his own life at the expense of theirs.
Accordingly, in the teeth of the strongest opposi-
tion, he at once proceeded to London. King
Henry lavished his praises on the young Earl's
steadfast good faith ; and that men might under-
stand that he knew how to honour virtue, he sent
him home laden with gifts, and accompanied by
both his brothers." l
It was in all good faith that Buchanan wrote
the foregoing paragraph, and it may be that in the
ordinary dealings of life his pupil was quite up to
the moral standard of his class and of his age. We
now know, however, what Buchanan could not
have known, that Cassillis was in reality the paid
agent of Henry vin., and that his magnanimity on
this occasion was purely mythical.2 At the same
tune, it is but fair to add that a large number of
the Scottish nobles were in the same case as Cas-
sillis, and that their policy finds some justification
in the danger they professed to see from the French
ascendency in Scotland.
1 Hist. Eer. Scot. lib. xv.
2 Cassillis is condemned by a letter of his own found in the State
Paper Office.— Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 32 (edit. 1873).
CHAPTER VI.
SCOTLAND — QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS.
1535-1539.
THE following entries in the Treasurer's Accounts
fix approximately the date of Buchanan's return to
Scotland, and at the same tune give us an interesting
glimpse of his close connection with the Court :
"Item, the xvj Februar [1535-6] be the Kingis
gracis precept and speciale command to Maister
George Balquhannan and Andro Myln, servandis
to Lord James, xi elnis pareis blak to be thame
twa gounis," etc., and various other "leverays",
viz., " hoiss, bonnettis, hugtonis,1 and doublettis ".
" Item [the xxj day of August 1537], to Maister
George Buchquhannan, at the Kingis command . . .
xx lib."
In July 1538, upon occasion of "the Quenis
[Magdalene's] saull mess .and dirige, quham God
assolze", Maister George Balquhanan received " a
goun of Paryse black, lyned with blak satyne", etc. ;
also £20 at the King's command.
As, on his return to Scotland, he spent some
time in the country with the Earl of Cassillis before
his engagement with the Lord James,2 Buchanan
1 Cassocks (Fr. hocqueton).
2 Vita SUM, and Dedication to Franciscanus.
86 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
must have left Paris in 1535 ; and this date exactly
corresponds with his statement that his second
sojourn abroad lasted ten years.1 It was during
his stay in the country with Cassillis at this time
that Buchanan wrote a poem which was to have the
most important influence on his subsequent for-
tunes. This was the poem entitled Somnium, in
which he gave mortal offence to the great Order of
the Franciscans, who thenceforward, first in Scot-
land, and afterwards in England, France, Portugal,
and Italy, pursued him with every weapon at their
disposal.2
In a lively figure Scott has very well described
the position of the Church of Home at this period.
" That ancient system," he says, " which so well
accommodated its doctrines to the wants and wishes
of a barbarous age, had since the art of printing,
and the gradual diffusion of knowledge, lain floating
like some huge leviathan, into which ten thousand
reforming fishers were darting their weapons." 3
Partly owing to its existing shortcomings, and
partly also, it should be said, to its own good offices
in the past, the old religion in Scotland was even
less able than elsewhere to meet the storm that
now came upon it. By its endeavours in pre-
ceding centuries, as we have seen, education was
perhaps more widely spread in Scotland than in any
other country of Europe. From an Act of Parlia-
ment passed in 1525, and renewed in 1535, pro-
hibiting the importation of Lutheran books, we
gather that from the very first there was an intelli-
gent and widespread interest in the great religious
1 VitaSua.
2 Dedication to Franciscanus. 3 The Monastery, ch. xxxi.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 87
movement, as yet associated only with the name of
Luther. On the other hand, we have it from
friends and foes alike that the bulk of the clergy
themselves were dead to that general awakening
of men's minds which betokened nothing less than
the beginning of a new era. By the time they
came to see what many of the laity and a few of
their own order had seen long before, it was too
late to meet the new conditions.1
But not only had the clergy fallen below the
educated intelligence of the laity, they had also
fallen below its moral standard.2 At the very tune
they should have given least room for criticism,
they presented the broadest mark. This moral
disintegration was in the first place due to the fact
that the ideas on which the Church rested were in
the last need of quickening or renewal. The in-
tellectual interest in its doctrines was insufficient
to give life to that complicated machinery of the
Papal system, which renders it so powerful in
periods of religious fervour, but in times of apathy
makes it but a cumbrous toy. This intellectual
torpor brought with it moral deterioration ; and
in that age moral deterioration meant surrender
to the coarsest forms of sensual indulgence. If a
Loyola was not forthcoming to quicken the Church
from within, a Knox must renew it from without.
The decay of the Roman Church in Scotland
was organic ; but the process was hastened by cir-
cumstances which at healthier periods would have
1 Buchanan himself tells us that many of the monks believed that
Luther was the author of the New Testament. — Rer. Scot. Hist. lib. xv.
p. 292. The testimony of Boece and Major regarding the ignorance of
the clergy is in the same direction.
2 The poems of Sir David Lyndsay, for example, leave us distinctly
with this impression.
88 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
promoted its vitality. By the battle of Flodden, a
generation of nobles, who had formed the natural
equipoise to the higher clergy, had perished ; and
to the Church thus fell an undue place in the man-
agement of affairs.1 The long minority of James v.
increased this advantage ; and when James himself
came to the throne, his own policy was to exalt the
bishops at the expense of the nobles. Arrogance
and luxurious living followed this increase of power
and wealth ; and the lower clergy soon learned the
manners of their superiors. Hatred and contempt
of its representatives, therefore, worked with the de-
sire for reform to move the foundations of the Church.
A large number of the nobles detested the higher
clergy, and the people were growing out of sympathy
with the lower. Moreover, the schism of England
from Rome came to be the formidable precedent
which presented itself as the ultimate solution of
the general discontent. The influence of England
in hastening the Reformation in Scotland is one of
those facts in history which cannot be measured by
any accumulation of details. Its example was a
great fact that touched men's minds at a thousand
points, and influenced them unconsciously to them-
selves.
It was further the misfortune of the Romish clergy
that their ways of living and thinking presented
precisely the subjects which the humanists, and,
indeed, the generally quickened intelligence of the
laity, needed for the exercise of their new weapons.
We certainly do no injustice to men like Erasmus
and Buchanan in thinking that their sarcasms at
1 This is Buchanan's own remark, and its justice is evident. — Rer.
Scot. Hist. lib. xiii. p. 255.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 89
the expense of the monks were often as much mere
play of wit as the expression of righteous indigna-
tion. With the humanists especially, who sought
to make a reputation as poets, the contrast between
the lives and the profession of the clergy was an
inexhaustible subject. For poetry of the highest
type, these Latin poets of the Renaissance had no
great themes on which their genius could work.
By the very condition of their training, and the
mental attitude they cultivated, they cut them-
selves off from real contact with their native soil.
Their attitude towards the past and present of their
respective countries was too critical to permit of
their producing works of national interest and
national importance. All this certainly applies with
less force to Buchanan than to the contemporary
humanists of France and Italy. That intensity of
national feeling, which has always pre-eminently
distinguished Scotsmen, kept him close to the heart
of his country in spite of his artificial training.
Yet it is the fact that with the exception of a few
patriotic lines, he wrote no poem which is essentially
homebred in its inspiration. His themes were the
conventional ones of all the Latinists ; and in the
three poems now about to be considered he comes
before us rather as the humanist exercising his wit
and his Latinity than as the social and religious
reformer. In another production, which belongs to
a somewhat later period, we shall see that Buchanan
rose to a higher mood in his denunciation of what
he considered the abuses of the time in Church and
State.
The poem entitled Somnium, which was to be
the beginning of so many of his troubles, is identical
90 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
in motive with a poem of Dunbar known as How
Dunbar was desyrit to be ane Fryer.1 Both poets
begin by describing how St. Francis, the founder of
the Franciscan Order, appeared to them in a dream,
and besought them to don his habit. The reply of
both is to the same effect. They can be honester
men as they are, for vice and knavery are all they
can see in the Church. If St. Francis could pro-
mise them a bishopric, however, they would gladly
listen to his proposals.
" Of full few freiris that has bene sanctis I reid ;
Quhairfor ga bring to me ane bischopis weid,
Gife evin thou wold my soul guid into hevin."
Or, as Buchanan renders it : —
Pervia sed raris sunt coeli regna cucullis :
Vix Monachis illic creditur esse locus.
Multus honoratis fulgebit Episcopus aris ;
Kara cucullato sternitur ara gregi.
We know from this poem of Dunbar that in his
youth he actually was a Franciscan friar, though
he afterwards renounced the habit. Buchanan in
all probability never ceased to be a layman. At
the same time, it is noteworthy that both this
poem and Franciscanus, the most elaborate of all
his satires against the friars, open with the question
as to the advisability of entering the Church. It is
quite possible, therefore, that at this particular
period Buchanan may have had serious thoughts of
taking such a step. It is to be remembered that
about 1537 there was as yet in Scotland no real
breach with the Church, though many were calling
aloud its abuses. Knox appears to have been in
priest's orders till about 1540, and Buchanan himself
has told us that there were still men in the Church
1 Buchanan's poem is, indeed, virtually a translation of Dunbar's.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 91
worthy of all respect. Moreover, he could not but
be aware that outside the Church his prospects
in life must be but dark and uncertain. As he
had no predilection for law or medicine, the hap-
hazard career of regent or family tutor was the
only one left open to him. He was not a consider-
able enough person to be promoted to important
State employment, and besides, as has been said,
the clergy had it much their own way in all depart-
ments of the government. Altogether, therefore,
it is by no means unlikely that the opening lines
of these two poems may record a real struggle in
Buchanan's mind.1
On the expiry of his engagement with Cassillis,
Buchanan had thoughts of once more returning to
France. Just at this moment, however, an offer
was made to him by James v. to act as tutor to one
of his natural sons.2 This son, Lord James Stewart,
is not to be confounded with another natural son of
James who bore the same name, and who was after-
wards known as the Regent Moray.3 As the King
was now but twenty-four, Buchanan's pupil must
have been a mere child. He died in 1558, leaving
no record in the history of his country. The
significance of this engagement for Buchanan was
that it brought him into close connection with the
1 Some lines in Franciscanus have been supposed to suggest that
Buchanan was at one time a friar ; but the context of the passage does
not justify such a conclusion : —
. . . puerum olim
Me quoque pene suis gens haec in retia mendax
Traxerat illecebris, nisi opein mihi forte tulisset
Coelitus oblata Eubuli sapientia cani.
2 VitaSua.
3 The mother of Buchanan's pupil was Elizabeth Shaw, of the family
of Sauchie. — Man, Censure of Euddiman, p. 349. The dedication of
Franciscanus proves that the Regent Moray was not Buchanan's pupil.
92 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Court, and led the King to prompt him to further
satires against the Franciscans.
In a letter addressed to Pope Clement vn. in
1531, James speaks highly of the virtues of the
Franciscans, yet this can hardly induce us to ques-
tion Buchanan's statement that it was at the
instance of the King he wrote against them.1 A set
epistle from a boy-king to a pope may be taken for
what it is worth ; and the fact remains that James
fully enjoyed the roundest jest at the expense of
the clergy. Buchanan said hard things of the
Church, but certainly no harder than Sir David
Lyndsay in his Satire of the Three Estates, the first
performance of which James honoured with his
presence.2 According to Buchanan, James fancied
that at this time he had particular reason to have
a grudge against the Franciscans, as he suspected
them of being concerned in certain plots now afoot
against him among the nobility. From the date at
which the poem was written, the plot referred to
was probably that of the Master of Forbes, who in
June 1536 was accused of an attempt to shoot the
King at Aberdeen, and in July 1538 was beheaded
on this charge. Nothing is accurately known of
this affair of Forbes, and there is no reason to
believe that the Franciscans were in any way his
accomplices.3
As Buchanan had already been made to feel the
foolhardiness of offending so powerful a body as the
Franciscans, it was with some reluctance that he
1 The letter of James to the Pope is quoted by Canon Bellesheim in
his History of the Catholic Church in Scotland (ii. 139 w.), from Theiner,
Monumenta, p. 597.
2 Laing, Life of Lyndsay (prefixed to his edition of Lyndsay 's Works).
3 Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. ii. chap. ix. (Edin. 1873).
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 93
obeyed the King's command to attack them anew.1
It occurred to him that by giving his verses an
ambiguous turn he might satisfy the King without
further irritating the Franciscans. Such is the
account of the origin of the two short poems,
each entitled Palinodia, which with little varia-
tion Buchanan gives in his autobiography and in
the dedication of his Franciscanus. If at their first
appearance these poems were exactly such as we
now have them, Buchanan must indeed have had a
supreme contempt equally for the intelligence of the
King and that of the friars. Both poems are, in
truth, far more savage satires than the Somnium
itself. The fact, however, that two poems of the
same title stand in the collection of his works,
suggests that, as in the case of Franciscanus, altera-
tions and additions may have been made on the
poems as originally written. As they now stand, it
is certainly hard to see how Buchanan could have
imagined that the Franciscans would not resent this
second lampoon tenfold more keenly than the first.
In the first of these two satires Buchanan
imagines himself borne into the heavens and set
down in a vast hall thronged by monks of the
Franciscan order. A sarcastic description of their
general appearance follows. But the crowd is met
to sit in judgment on himself, and he is at once
dragged to the tribunal, where the judge dis-
charges a ludicrous tirade against him for daring
to breathe a word against the Order of St. Francis.
" Away with the knave!" he at last exclaims; " strip
him bare, and let his skin pay the penalty of his
tongue." The brothers need no second bidding.
1 VitaSua.
94 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
" They tear the clothes from my back. They take
turn about at the task. I receive a cut for every
saint in the calendar, nor even when the whole cata-
logue of the saints is called are the brothers weary.
My back is one sore. So, if stories be true, must St.
Jerome have looked when he was flogged for read-
ing Cicero. As soon as I was allowed to speak,
' Profane not, my father, profane not, brothers/ I
exclaimed, ' profane not your holy hands in my
blood. So may your seraphic Order flourish under
ever more glorious auspices. So may the ignorant
and the stupid join your tribe in flocks ; and may
never an old woman be wanting for you to gull.
May the mob never discover your lies, nor see
through your impostures.' ' And so on till he
becomes untranslatable. Of its companion piece
it is sufficient to say that it is, if possible, more
merciless in its satire.
We can hardly wonder that the Franciscans were
more greatly wroth than ever on the appearance of
this second pasquinade ; but we must needs wonder
to be told that it was not lively enough to satisfy
James.1 He demanded of Buchanan another satire,
" which should not only prick the skin, but probe
the vitals". Annoyed at having satisfied neither
party, Buchanan determined that on this occasion
he would strike out from the shoulder. The result
was his Franciscanus, the most carefully elaborated
of all his poems. The poem was only begun at this
time, and it was not till his final return to Scotland,
after 1560, that he again took it up and dedicated it
in its final form to the Regent Moray. In the
additions he afterwards made to it he drew largely
' Via /Swa, and Dedication to Franciscanus.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 95
from his intervening experience on the Continent.
Doubtless, also, he added touches to what he had
already written, as in every respect his poem is the
production of maturity.
The poem opens with a statement of the various
reasons which should induce men of serious mind to
enter the Church. " What a safe haven is to the
storm-tost ship, the Church should be to the soul
vexed by its own failures to attain true virtue."
The remainder of the poem (which consists of nearly
a thousand lines) is the reply to any one who may
think that by donning the Franciscan habit he is
likely to save his soul. The reply is put into the
mouth of one who has himself been a Franciscan,
and can therefore speak of what he knows. Who,
in the first place, he asks, are those who become
Franciscans ? Those ruined in purse, law-breakers,
the ignorant, the diseased in mind and body, the
used-up gambler and voluptuary. Formerly, men
when driven to straits committed suicide ; now they
turn Franciscans. But it may be asked, How do
such creatures impose on the world as they do ? The
answer is easy : All have to serve an apprenticeship
to knavery. The novice must first learn to fashion
his bearing and speech to his new profession. Having
acquired these elements, he is put into the hands of
some aged friar, who instructs him in all the methods
of befooling the people and indulging his own vices
with impunity. And here the poet presents the
imaginary address of such a counseUor to his raw
brother. Much of this speech cannot be described
except in the most general terms, but its outlines
may be given. The art of arts, he says, is how to
make dexterous use of the confessional so as to make
96 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
you master of your penitent. Rich matrons are the
most profitable victims. The country is the best
field of operations, for there the people are less keen-
witted than in towns. It is needful that the Fran-
ciscan should be eloquent ; but to acquire eloquence
the schools are the last place in the world to frequent.
The rules of successful oratory can easily be given.
Cultivate a face of brass ; eschew learning ; a few
Latin words dexterously applied will supply all that
is wanted ; flavour your sermons with frequent hints
of the horrors that await the sinner. Avoid, as you
would the deadliest poison, the writings of St. Paul.
Well had it been for the Church had that apostle
died in his childhood, or that at least he had never
been converted. The golden age of the Franciscans
is gone. People can no more be tricked as of old.
And the poem concludes with a comical story of a
brother who failed in an attempt to impose on
certain stupid Scottish peasants.
This satire is certainly a brilliant performance,
careful in construction, ingenious in detail, abounding
in happy sallies. At the same time, it is not satire
of the type that rises into poetry by the disinter-
estedness of its inspiration, and the very intensity
of its denunciation of evil. There is nothing in
Buchanan here of the prophet's or reformer's ful-
ness of soul, or their burning consciousness of a
divine cause. On its own level, however, it can
hardly be surpassed in its dexterous play of ironical
invective, and in its skill in the selection of points.
Lyndsay wrote as bitterly of the monks, but the
satire of Buchanan is the far more perfect weapon,
and wielded with far higher skill and far keener
purpose to wound.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 97
Two questions suggest themselves in connection
with these satires of Buchanan : how far are we to
consider them legitimate ; and how are we to regard
what to the modern reader is the repulsive coarse-
ness of many of their passages ? If satire be a
legitimate weapon at all, it can never have stronger
justification than in the purpose for which Buchanan
now used it. A society which nominally existed for
the noblest of all ends, yet by its position, its prestige,
its example, polluting all the sources of the national
life — this surely is a legitimate object of satire, and
specially so when more effective weapons are out of
the question. That such was indeed the real con-
dition of the Church is not questioned by serious
historians of any shade of opinion.1 At the same
time we may make too much of these admissions,
and draw somewhat erroneous conclusions as to the
real condition of Scotland at this period. In the
sixteenth century, in Scotland as elsewhere, there
took place a great moral and intellectual awakening,
and the national mind was violently turned to self-
examination and self-criticism. If at any period of
its history a people's mind takes this turn, it will
never be at loss for the materials of a damning in-
dictment against itself. In such a case it is apt to
exaggerate its own shortcomings, and shut its eyes
to the saving elements in its own constitution. This
was what happened to Scotland at this particular
epoch. The nation saw its own deformities, and
fortunately for its own highest interests would insist
in thinking of nothing else. That the forces on the
side pf religion and virtue came to prevail is conclu-
1 See Canon Bellesheim's History of the Catholic Church of Scotland,
vol. ii. chap. vi. (Hunter Blair's translation).
G
98 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
sive proof that there was somewhere stored up the
moral energy which should ultimately reconstruct
society on a new basis. In the Church itself there
were undoubtedly many persons who preserved its
nobler traditions, and who would gladly have set
about the work of reformation from within. But,
as has already been said, these persons were neither
numerous enough nor influential enough to make
such a reform possible. Of the better side of the
dying Church Buchanan himself gives us a pleasant
glimpse in an interesting poem written at the same
period as the three satires just mentioned.1 This
poem has a double interest, as marking Buchanan's
' own religious sentiments, and as presenting us with
an " interior " in Scottish ecclesiastical society of
that day such as the historians have not led us to
expect. The Archbishop whose entertainment the
poet commemorates is Gavin Dunbar, who had once
been tutor to the King, had become Archbishop of
Glasgow in 1524, and Chancellor of the kingdom in
1528. In his History, written long after this poem,
and when he had become a member of the Reformed
Church, Buchanan has still a kindly word to say of
Dunbar, making mention of him as "a good and
learned man, though in the opinion of certain people
somewhat deficient in political prudence ". It should
also be noted, as further bearing on Buchanan's re-
ligious opinions at this tune, that this same Arch-
bishop solemnly protested in 1543 against the pro-
posal to permit the Bible to be read in the Scots or
English tongue. The poem is entitled Coena Gavini
Archiepiscopi Glascuensis. " Having sat as a guest
with Gavin, I envy not the gods their nectar and
1 Epig. i. 43.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 99
ambrosia. A feast where was no vain display, but a
table chastely and generously furnished, seasoned
with talk, now serious, now bright with Attic wit !
The guests were equal in number to the Muses,
worthy of themselves in doctrine, genius, sympathy,
and noble feeling (fides). As Apollo led the choir
of the Muses, so our host shone above all by his
eloquent speech. The talk was of the glory of Him
who wields the thunder, how He took on Him the
burden of our condition, how the Divine nature
clothed with man's frail flesh received no stain of
sin, how God descended in the form of a servant,
yet His mortal covering stripped Him not of His own
Divine nature. Each guest is in doubt whether the
school has found its way to the palace, or the palace
to the school,"
With reference to the coarseness of these satires
of Buchanan, as well as many other of his poems
besides, the saying of the Abbe" Galiani must be re-
garded as the last word : " One century may judge
another century ; but only his own century may
judge the individual." When we speak of the
coarseness of the writers of a past age it should at
once be made plain whether we speak of a coarse-
ness relative to our own or the writer's day.
Judged by a modern standard, much of Buchanan's
work is objectionable in a high degree. On the
other hand, if we compare him even with the most
reputable writers of his own century, we find him
neither better nor worse than his neighbours. In
Scotland we have the flagrant instances of William
Dunbar and Sir David Lyndsay, who speak in the
vernacular with a licence that fairly leaves Buchanan
behind ; and the " meary bourds " with which Knox
100 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
enlivens his History of the Reformation in Scotland
may be regarded as marking the limits of the strictest
decorum which the age prescribed for itself. If we
go abroad, we have but to finger the pages of the
Contes et Nouvelles of Margaret of Navarre, the type
of a pious soul and a refined intelligence, to be con-
vinced that a freedom of speech was then permitted
which by no means implied native coarseness in the
writer. In Buchanan's case, moreover, we must
take into account that he wrote in the language of
the learned ; and as we shall see with reference to
another side of his work, this must count for more
than is generally supposed in the final estimate we
form of him.
It has always been matter for wonder that Lynd-
say escaped the consequences of his unmeasured
invective against the Church, when many persons
less formidable and less distinguished were called to
account. Buchanan, at all events, was soon made
to feel that not even the countenance of the King
would be his defence against the wrath of those he
had offended. The year 1539 was one of vigorous
action against heretics. " In the beginning of that
year," he tells us in his History, " many suspected of
Lutheranism were seized ; towards the end of Feb-
ruary five were burned ; nine recanted ; many were
exiled. Among the last was George Buchanan,
who, while his guards were asleep, escaped from the
window of his sleeping apartment."1 As it had
come to his ears that Cardinal Beaton had offered
a bribe to the King to put him in his hands, it
was evident that Scotland had become too hot
for him.2
1 Eer. Scot. Hist. lib. xiv. p. 277. * Vita Sua.
QUARREL WITH THE FRANCISCANS. 101
On escaping from his prison Buchanan made for
England But his adventures were not yet over, as
we gather from the letter of Randolph, in which he
suggests that his biography should be written while
he is still alive to supply the facts.1 Among other
things, Randolph says that he will have to tell
" how the Grey Friars prevailed against him, that he
was fayne to leave his contrey, how he escapid with
great hazard of his lyfe at Godes hand the thievis
on the Border, the plague in the north of England,
what relieve he found heere at a famous knightis
handes, Sir John Rainsforde, the onlie man that
mayntaynid him against the furie of the Papists ".
Besides what is here stated, we know nothing
further of Buchanan's sojourn in England at this
time than what is implied in three short poems, two
of them apparently written now, the third at some
subsequent period. The last is an epitaph on Sir
John Rainsford, with whom he found refuge.2 The
terms in which he speaks of Rainsford bear out
the words of Randolph. " His house," Buchanan
says, " was an altar of refuge to the wretched, an ark
of safety to the good." The second poem is addressed
to Thomas Cromwell, then near the term of his
career. From this poem we must conclude that at
no period of his life were Buchanan's fortunes at a
lower ebb. Addressing Cromwell as a " haven for
the unfortunate and the restorer of primitive piety ",
he speaks of himself as " a wanderer, an exile, needy,
tossed about by land and sea through every trial
which life can bring to man ". And he prays the
great man to accept the humble gift he lays at his
feet. This gift was a collection of poems, which he
speaks of as " sheaves from the poor harvest of a
1 See Appendix A. 2 Epig. ii. 24.
102 THE LIFE -OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
barren wit".1 As is well known, this was the
universal manner in which poor scholars made their
approaches to the great. It speaks well for the
native independence of Buchanan's character that
such productions make but a small proportion of his
work, though more even than most of the scholars
of his day he must have known the pressure of
immediate need.
The lines Buchanan addressed to Henry vni. at
the same period even more strongly confirm the im-
pression of his needy condition.2 In the sketch of
his own life Buchanan sarcastically speaks of Henry
as " burning Protestant and Catholic alike, on the
same day, and in the same fire, and as more intent
on safeguarding his prerogative than advancing pure
religion". But in these lines he addresses Henry
as if he were an Alfred or St. Louis. " His virtues,"
he concludes, " place him in the ranks of the gods,
and far above the proudest aspirations of mortals."
This was, of course, but the current coin of courtly
compliment, and has its perfect parallel in the flat-
teries addressed by Spenser to Elizabeth. The
University of Paris, having often to address great
personages of questionable character, justified its ill-
deserved eulogies on the ground that though ill-
deserved, they placed before the person addressed
the pattern of what he ought to be. And no better
apology, perhaps, could be offered for the custom.
Meanwhile, from Henry's indiscriminate dealings
with persons of all shades of religious opinion, it
was in daily risk that Buchanan remained in Eng-
land. Once more, therefore, and when he was now
in his thirty-third year, he had to fare forth and
begin the world anew.
1 Miscell. xiii. a Ibid. xv.
CHAPTER VII.
BORDEAUX.
1539-1542.
ON leaving England, Buchanan once more made
for Paris. It would seem that he regarded France
much as Heine regarded it three centuries later.
" How is it," exclaims Heine, " that France lays
such a spell on every foreigner who may happen to
pass a few years on its soil ? " l In the sixteenth
century Buchanan bears similar testimony to the
attraction that France and its people exerted on all
cultivated minds. Certain of his panegyrics, in-
deed, are hardly borne out by his own experiences
in that country. Thus he speaks of her as " the
kind nurse of all true learning ", " the common
fatherland of all nations ", " the sincere worshipper
of the Deity".2 The justice of these laudations
may be questioned ; yet in speaking thus Buchanan
undoubtedly gives expression to the general feeling
of scholars towards France during the first half of
the sixteenth century. The labours of the best
humanists, as we have seen, were even during this
period thwarted by many opposing forces ; yet with
Francis as her king, France was on the whole the
happiest soil for the disinterested pursuit of the best
thought then known. Buchanan's attachment to
1 Lutetia, Letter xliii. - Adventus in Galfiam.
104 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
France seems to have been cordially returned. The
French were still at this period more kindly disposed
to the Scots than to other foreigners; and Buchanan,
by his long residence in their country, and by his
ready acknowledgment of its superiority, had still
further claim on their goodwill. " Buchanan," says
de Thou,1 " was born by the banks of the Blane, in
the country of the Lennox, in Scotland ; but he was
of us by adoption."
But on the present occasion Buchanan was not
long to enjoy the society of Paris. On his arrival
he found his arch-enemy, Cardinal Beaton, engaged
in an embassy there.2 As things now went at the
Court and at the University, it would have been an
easy matter for Beaton to have placed Buchanan in
the hands of those who would have effectively
silenced his gibes at cardinals and monks. Since
Buchanan had left Paris in 1535, Francis had finally
identified himself with the old party in religion
against the Lutheran sectaries. An active per-
secution was being carried on in the capital and the
provinces; and no one was safe who gave the
slightest suspicion of a leaning to the new doctrine.
Paris, therefore, was no place for Buchanan at such
a time. It was fortunate, therefore, that just at
this moment a post was offered to him which for the
next three years provided him with a resting-place
of comparative security.3
In 1533 there had been opened at Bordeaux a
great school, which Montaigne, himself one of its
1 Thuanus, Hist, sui Temporis, vol. iv. p. 99.
2 Vita tfua. Pinkerton (History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 352) throws
doubt on Buchanan's statement here. But we now know that Beaton
was in Paris in 1539. — State Papers, Hen. viu. v. 154, 156.
3 Ibid.
BORDEAUX. 105
scholars, speaks of as " very flourishing for that time,
and the best in France ".l Planned on the model
of the best colleges of Paris, but especially that of
Navarre,2 and supported by the most eminent
public men of the time, this school, known as the
College de Guyenne, had already attracted many of
the best scholars in France. The institution had at
present the further good fortune of having at its head
a man whom Montaigne, the most capable of judges,
calls " the greatest principal of France ".3 This was
Andre de Gouvea, another member of that Por-
tuguese family who played such a distinguished
part in the development of education during this
period. Andr^ was the nephew of that Jacques de
Gouvea, whom we have seen as principal of Ste.
Barbe while Buchanan was regent there. During
the principalship of his uncle, Andre had acted as
one of his regents, and must then have known
Buchanan as his colleague, and as one of the most
distinguished of the younger men in connection with
the University. About the tune of Buchanan's
arrival in Paris, Gouve'a had two vacancies in his
College, and one of these he offered to his ancient
colleague. Buchanan at once closed with the offer,
and for the next three years we find him settled in
Bordeaux. The other vacancy was filled by filie
Vinet, afterwards himself principal of the College,
and with whom to the close of his life Buchanan was
united in the closest bonds of friendship.
In the history of what we now call secondary
education, the College de Guyenne, with the School of
1 Montaigne, Essais, Liv. i. chap. xxv.
2 Massebieau, Revue Pddagogique, 1888.
3 Montaigne, Essais, Liv. i. chap. xxv.
106 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Sturm at Strasbourg, and that of Calvin at Geneva,
supplies us with the most interesting and import-
ant details for the sixteenth century. Of the college
of Guyenne we have the most detailed history from
its foundation. From that history, lately written
by M. Gaullieur,1 we may gather how, at an epoch
in education in many respects resembling our own,
the enlightened men of that time sought to meet
the new conditions and new aims of life that had
come to them with the revival of letters. It is, of
course, beside our present task to give a detailed
account of the arrangements and scope of the new
College of Bordeaux. In the case of such men as
Sturm and Gouvea, the institutions which they
made and fostered form the most essential part
of their biographies. But Buchanan, it is to be
remembered, never had any part in the construc-
tion and direction of the school of Guyenne, and to
the end he remained only one of the subordinates
of the institution. Still, as for three years he held
this post, and as these three years were perhaps
among the happiest of his chequered life, some
account of his new surroundings seems in a certain
degree necessary.
A similar problem to that which confronts our-
selves confronted men in the opening of the six-
teenth century. The immense progress of science
during late years, and the transformation it has
wrought in the conditions of modern life, have
forced us to reconsider our entire scheme of educa-
tion. The traditions of humanism that come to us
from the sixteenth century appear to be doomed, and
the ideal of education that now seems to win most
1 Ernest Gaullieur, Histoire du ColUge de Guyenne (Paris, 1874).
BORDEAUX. 107
favour is hard-and-fast apprenticeship to practical
life. There is a curious touch of irony in the fact
that to-day, as in the sixteenth century, the Sor-
bonne has become in France the by-word for ob-
scurantism in education. Its reproach to-day is its
dogged adherence to these very classical studies it
originally did its best to obstruct. The transfor-
mation which science has wrought for us in the
present century, humanism wrought in the six-
teenth. The old scholastic training was outgrown,
and in the best minds the belief was universal that
in an acquaintance with the writings of Greece and
Rome was to be found the best possible intellectual
discipline for youth and manhood alike. Then, as
now, there were extremists in educational matters.
As we have now certain modern men of science
who see in the study of Latin and Greek the merest
dissipation of energy, so, at the time of which we are
speaking, there were many who thought that the
only possible line of progress for modern Europe was
in the universal adoption of Latin as the vehicle at
once of speech and literature. These persons had no
promptings to seek for anything that was good in
the old studies they sought to displace. Yet in
this neglect they undoubtedly missed much that
would have rendered more fruitful their study of
antiquity. As it happened, the broad instincts of
the modern nations led them in far other directions
than the humanists confidently anticipated, and it
may be that their modern representatives similarly
miss the deepest instincts of their time.
The arrangements of the new school in Bor-
deaux give us a measure of the change that had
taken place in educated Europe since the opening
108 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of the century. The school was virtually called
into existence for the teaching of Latin, as that
language had come to be known through the labours
of the humanists. In the ten successive classes
into which the scholars were divided,1 Latin was the
one subject of instruction through all the school
hours, through all the years of attendance. In five
higher classes, to which outsiders were admitted,
philosophy, Greek, and mathematics were taught.
The arrangements for the last two subjects, how-
ever, were so inadequate that only the merest ele-
ments could be acquired by the most diligent
scholars.2 A lecture on the Epistles of St. Paul, on
the first Sunday of every month, completed the list
of subjects taught at this great school, planned
according to all the lights of the time.3 Bordeaux,
it will be remembered, had been for centuries a
great mart for commerce, and was therefore full of
all the activities of a manifold life ; yet in this
curriculum of its new College not the slightest
provision is made for the practical training of its
future citizens.
From what has been said, it will be seen that
the College in some degree discharged the functions
of an elementary school, a secondary school, and a
university. In the tenth class, pupils were taught
to read and write, and they gradually proceeded
through the Latin course till they were sufficiently
advanced to begin the study of philosophy. In the
subordinate place given to philosophy, as in the
excessive importance attached to Latin, we see all
1 Two more classes were formed by a subdivision of the sixth and
seventh. This change was made before GouveVs day. — Gaullieur, p. 104.
2 Gaullieur, p. 104. 3 Ibid. p. 158.
BORDEAUX. 109
the new tendencies of humanism. Whereas in the
Paris colleges three years were allotted to philo-
sophy, at Guyenne two were now thought enough.1
The methods of instruction in this subject, also,
were entirely different from those followed in the
schools of Paris. Logic and ethics were taught, as
Melanchthon had shown the way, by introducing the
scholars to practical illustrations of these sciences in
the ancient writers — not, as had for centuries been
the case, by books of " sentences " and trifling exer-
cises. In all the classes and in all the different
subjects dictation and learning by heart were prac-
tised to what we should now consider an utterly
undue extent. The custom of disputation, which
made so large a part of mediaeval instruction, re-
ceived a strictly subordinate place in the school of
Gouvea. Only on Saturdays was the practice put
in force, when six scholars of one class sat in judg-
ment on the written compositions of six scholars of
the class below.2
The discipline and internal arrangements at
Bordeaux mark a distinct advance on the colleges of
Paris. The pupils did not lie on the floor, but
were seated on benches, arranged, in the case of the
junior classes, in the form of an amphitheatre.
From the list of rules for the conduct of the
scholars, posted in the great hall of the College, a
few may be given as throwing a curious light on
the time. The scholars must be religious and filled
with the fear of God ; they must not think or
speak ill of the Catholic religion ; they must not
read or have in their possession books condemned
by the Fathers of the Church (we shall see that
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 232. '' Ibid. vol. i. p. 234.
110 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
there was some need for this prohibition) ; they
must take in good part their reproofs and punish-
ments, and not use threats or insolent words to
their regents ; they must speak no language but
Latin amongst themselves.1 Of the extent of the
College buildings some idea may be gained from
the fact that there were fifteen class-rooms, twenty-
six rooms for the accommodation of the regents,
domestics, and fifty-six boarders. For the junior
pupils there was a distinct building.
We have seen that in the case of the colleges of
Paris one of the chief difficulties in the way of discip-
line was the unsatisfactory relation between principal
and regents. As things were arranged in these
colleges, the regents as often took sides with the
scholars as with the principal. Gouvea proved his
genius as an administrator by putting himself on a
rational footing with his subordinates. He made a
point of treating them as his equals, showed no favour
to one more than to another, gave each the right of
inspection and correction throughout the College,
and took all of them into council in the work of
administration. By such prudent conduct Gouvea
attracted the most distinguished teachers to Bor-
deaux, and made his institution the most celebrated
of its kind in France.2
Which of the ten classes was committed to
Buchanan is not known ; but his duties must
have consisted simply in teaching the portion of
Latin grammar, and in reading the particular Latin
author, assigned to his class. The class-teaching
ceased at five in the afternoon ; but each regent had
his own set of internes or boarders, whose studies
1 Gaullieur, p. 106. 2 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 238.
BORDEAUX. Ill
he superintended in the evening, and from whom he
received fees in addition to his public salary.
Among his boarders, Buchanan had at one time no
less famous a pupil than Montaigne. The subject
of Montaigne and his tutors has been a standing
puzzle to biographers. In the famous essay in
which he gives an account of his early education,
he names as his precepteurs domestiques four of
the leading scholars in France — Nicolas Grouchy,
Guillaume Guerente, Marc-Antoine Muret, and
Buchanan. That he should have had all these
scholars in succession as tutors resident in his
father's house seemed a circumstance demanding
some explanation. A late writer would cut this
knot in a fashion somewhat disrespectful to Mon-
taigne. " The critics," he says, " still dispute what
this [precepteurs domestiques] means. A foreigner
may be permitted the conjecture that the form of
speech called gasconnade has been employed by
Montaigne/'1 The same phrase has misled succes-
sive biographers to suppose that Buchanan at some
period actually resided with Montaigne in the
country in the capacity of private tutor. It will be
seen that the college arrangement above mentioned
explains the difficulty in the simplest manner. We
know that all the four scholars named by Montaigne
actually taught at the College de Guyenne. When
Montaigne, therefore, speaks of all four having been
his precepteurs domestiques, or, as he expresses him-
self elsewhere in the same essay, precepteurs de
chambre, all that he meant to say was that he was
an interne orboarder with each of them in succession,
and had private instruction from them in addition to
1 Mark Pattison, Essays, vol. i. p. 126 (Clarendon Press, 1889).
112 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
his lessons in the regular classes. The sentence in
Montaigne's essay above referred to is our sole
source of information regarding his connection with
Buchanan. There is consequently no ground
whatever for the commonly received statement that
Buchanan lived at the country-house of his pupil.1
In the same well-known essay, Montaigne has
given us some interesting notes on his experiences
at the College de Guyenne. After speaking of the
excessive care his father had taken with his home
education he proceeds : " My good father being in ex-
treme dread of failure in that which he had so much
at heart, allowed himself to be won over to common
opinion, which, after the manner of cranes, ever
follows those who go before, and ranged himself on
the side of custom, having no longer with him those
he had brought from Italy for my early education ;
and sent me, when I was about six years of age, to the
College de Guienne, very flourishing for that time,
and the best in France ; and there no trouble was
enough for him in the choosing of my private tutors,
and in all other things relating to my comfort, in
which he made several stipulations against the rules
of colleges : though, all the same, it still remained a
college." In another part of the same essay he
speaks of " Georges Buchanan, ce grand poe'te
escossois". It will be remembered that by his
father's novel plan of education Montaigne had
been taught from infancy to speak Latin as his
mother tongue. When he went to the College,
therefore, he astonished all his teachers by his
fluency in that language ; and he specially mentions
1 Irving noted this, but of course could not give the true explana-
tion.— Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 38 (note).
BORDEAUX. 113
that all his private tutors, and Buchanan among the
rest, had repeatedly told him that they were afraid
to accost him in Latin. As this mastery of the
Latin language was in fact what all the humanists
were aiming at, Montaigne's facility would seem
greatly to have impressed Buchanan. " Buchanan,"
he says, "whom I met afterwards in the train of
the Mareschal de Brissac, told me that he had the
intention of writing on the subject of the education
of children, and that he took mine as a pattern ; for
at that time he had charge of the Comte de Brissac,
whom we have seen since so valorous and brave."
As we shall see, Buchanan did afterwards write a
work designed for the instruction of de Brissac ; but
neither this nor any other of his productions corre-
sponds to this description of Montaigne. Except at
these two periods, we have no reason to believe that
Buchanan and Montaigne had any intercourse. It
is perhaps worth mentioning, however, that long
afterwards, in a letter of Killigrew to Cecil in 1572,
it is stated that a translation of Buchanan's famous
Detectio was sent to " one Montaigne of Mont-
pellier ", supposed then to be writing The Universal
History of the Time. Probably Montaigne is here
confused with de Thou.1
Another notable person with whom Buchanan
held some intercourse during his stay in Bordeaux
was the omniscient swashbuckler, Julius Caesar
Scaliger. That scholar had for some years been
settled at Agen, some sixty or seventy miles from
Bordeaux, in the capacity of physician to the
bishop of the place. Here, in the autumn holidays
1 Froude, History of England, vol. x. p. 41 n. Montaigne quotes
Franciscanus in his Essais, Liv. iii. chap. x. He seems also to have read
Buchanan's History of Scotland. Cf. Essais, Liv. iii. chap. vii.
H
114 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of the schools, he was wont to receive annual visits
from the regents of the College de Guyenne.1
None of these learned visitors seems to have been
more acceptable to him than Buchanan, and if we
may judge from the complimentary verses inter-
changed by them, the esteem seems to have been
mutual. In a few happily turned lines, Buchanan
speaks of a visit paid by him to Agen. The roads
were all but impassable, and it was wintry weather
at its worst ; but amid all the discomforts of the
journey one hope cheers him — he will enjoy
Scaliger's converse at its end. Unfortunately,
Julius is absent, and even after five days he does
not appear. Buchanan has to return without a
sight of his friend; and this disappointment, he
concludes, far outweighs all the toil of his journey.2
Scaliger replied to Buchanan in two copies of verses
by no means so happily turned. What is note-
worthy in Scaliger's lines to Buchanan is the
consciousness they express, in their strained and
clumsy manner, of Buchanan's unrivalled skill and
genius in Latin poetry. Even in his own day,
Scaliger's taste and discernment in such matters
were lib t held of much value, yet the tone of these
verses cannot but be regarded as a striking testi-
mony to the impression made on Scaliger by
Buchanan's character and talent. As is well known,
Scaliger, with all his prodigious attainments, was
the most vainglorious of men. His life was a cease-
less wrangle with his contemporaries, and in his
attacks on Erasmus he outdid even his own century
in the downright brutality of his abuse. With such
1 Jos. Scaliger, De Vetustate et Splendore Gentis Scaligerae.
2 Epig. i. 49.
BORDEAUX. 115
a man we should hardly have expected Buchanan,
whose own temper was none of the sweetest, to
have put himself on cordial terms. Scaliger's
admiration of Buchanan was shared to the full by
his greater son. The highest eulogy that has been
pronounced on Buchanan's poetry is that of Joseph
Scaliger. " In Latin poetry," he says, " Buchanan
leaves all Europe behind."1 And in his elegy
written on Buchanan he has spoken of him in a
manner that reminds us of Landor :—
Namque ad supremum perducta Poetica culmen
In te stat, nee quo progrediatur habet.
Imperil fuerat Komani Scotia limes :
Roman! eloquii Scotia finis erit.
1 Prima Scaligerana (Cologne 1695), p. 37: "Buchananus unus est
in tota Europa omnes post se relinquens in Latina poesi."
CHAPTER VIII.
BORDEAUX OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES.
BUCHANAN'S position in the school at Bordeaux was
that of a subordinate, and to the end he never
attained to the highest honours of his profession
on the Continent. In all probability such a posi-
tion was the last in the world he would have
desired. Neither by his temper nor his genius
was he fitted for the work of a Sturm or a
Gouvda. A certain irresponsibility, a certain
amount of leisure for his own pursuits, perfect
freedom from all practical cares — such seems to
have been the ideal he had always before him ; and
this is but to say that he was the scholar and man
of letters in the first place, and in the second place
a teacher.
But although by his official position he was only
a subordinate, it is evident that he was a marked
man among his fellows. His literary gift was
recognised from the first as unrivalled. In the
case of a great institution like the College de
Guyenne, occasions were continually arising when
it had to address great personages either in its
own interest or in the discharge of its necessary
116
OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES. 117
functions. On such occasions, if we may judge from
the specimens in his collected works, Buchanan was
frequently called upon to exercise his talent. Thus
he had not long been in Bordeaux when there
came to the city the most distinguished guest it
had ever had the privilege to entertain. This was
no less a personage than the Emperor Charles v.,
on his famous journey through France, hy the
romantic permission of its king, to suppress the
insurrection of the burghers of Ghent. Bordeaux
with all its institutions did its best to show all
honour to its august visitor ; and on the part of the
College a Latin poem by Buchanan was presented
to the Emperor.1 This poem has all the character
of a set performance, and is interesting simply as a
proof that when his colleagues wished to give col-
lective expression to their desires, they naturally
looked to Buchanan as their exponent. On another
occasion, when the finances of the College were not
quite satisfactory, it occurred to Gouvea that a
poetical address to the Chancellor of the Kingdom,
known as a generous patron of letters, might bring
some advantage to him. Buchanan was again
appealed to ; and a historian of Bordeaux thus
tells us of the manner in which he responded :
" Buchanan," he says, " performed his task with
elegance, but above all with nettete. Quite con-
vinced of his own merit and that of his friends, he
made use of no idle flatteries, but simply put the
question to the Chancellor if they might count on
his support, adding with dignity that the Muses
of Aquitaine, thus abandoned, could easily retreat
1 Stivae, i. " Ad Carolum v. Imperatorem, Burdegalae hospitio publico
susceptum, nomine Scholae Burdegalensis, anno MD.XXXIX."
118 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
elsewhere, certain as they were to find an asylum
wherever they might betake themselves." l
Besides these performances executed to order,
Buchanan, as was his habit till his most advanced
years, threw off many shorter pieces at this time,
which doubtless passed from hand to hand among
the congenial spirits of the city. Only two of these
pieces call for particular notice as making an essen-
tial part of his biography. The brothers of St.
Antony at Bordeaux enjoyed the curious privilege
of having two pigs sent into the town free of toll.2
The brothers, it would appear, somewhat strained
their privilege, and their convent came to be
literally peopled with pigs. The magistrates
having learned that the pious community made
a regular trade in these animals, had more than
once endeavoured to put a stop to the traffic. This
was an occasion and a theme after Buchanan's own
heart, and he accordingly launched the following
epigram : " When alive, Antony, you are said to
have been a feeder of swine ; now, when dead, you
feed monks. Both, in truth, have the same brains
and the same stomach, the same delight in filth and
gluttony. In everything they are alike, save one ;
but therein lies a grievous blunder. Acorns should
be the food of your monks as well as of your swine."3
The other poem is one which not only, like the
above, reveals the spirit and temper of Buchanan —
it is a poem which better than volumes of history
reveals to us the attitude begotten in the men of
Buchanan's day by the progress of humanism.*
1 Dezeimeris, De la Renaissance des Lettres a Bordeaux.
2 Gaullieur, p. 142. 3 Fratres Fraterrimi, xxii.
4 Eleg. iii. " Ad Briandum Vallium, Senatorem Burdegal., pro Lena
apologia."
OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES. 119
The poem has been a puzzle to Buchanan's bio-
graphers, who have wished to make of him an
ardent reformer from the beginning. From its
nature it cannot be analysed here ; but its title
is sufficient to indicate its purport. It is, of
course, a mere jeu d' esprit ; but it is a jeu d 'esprit
which puts beyond question how much more, at
this period of his life at least, Buchanan was the
humanist than the reformer. The point of view of
the poem is one which essentially implies the ironic
and not the theological view of life ; and it would
argue complete unacquaintance with the spirit of
his age to draw from such a poem any injurious
conclusions as to Buchanan's own manner of life.
All that we are justified in inferring from such
effusions of the humanists is that they claimed for
themselves a licence of thought and speech over the
whole of human experience which men of another type
deem it wiser to renounce. It throws still further
light on this strange time when we learn that the
person to whom Buchanan addresses this remark-
able poem, Briand de Valle'e, was a councillor of the
Parliament of Bordeaux, that it was he who founded
the monthly lecture on the Epistles of St. Paul, and
that Babelais, who counted him one of his best
friends, could speak of him as the " tant bon, tant
vertueux, tant docte, et equitable president Briand
de Vallee".1
Buchanan found further scope for his literary
faculty in a practice which Gouvea seems to have
established in his school. It was expected of the
regents (possibly only of those who had charge
of the advanced classes) that they should each
1 Rabelais, Liv. iv. chap, xxxvii.
120 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
write a Latin play every year for representation
by the boys.1 This practice was encouraged for
two reasons. It gave the pupils that facility in
Latin which was the grand aim of the entire
curriculum of the school. Secondly — and this
is the reason given by Buchanan himself — these
Latin plays, being imitations of classical models,
served to wean the taste of the scholars from the
absurdities of the mediaeval mysteries, in which, as
he tells us, the French above all nations then took
especial delight.2 It was to be expected that the
humanists, who had come to know from antiquity
what the drama might be made, should regard with
disgust these monstrous exhibitions, which in many
cases appealed to the basest passions of the mob.
That there was real ground for this feeling on their
part is proved by the fact that in 1547 the Parlia-
ment of Paris was constrained to suppress, by reason
of the excess of their buffoonery, " all mysteries of
the Passion, or other sacred mysteries ".3 Moreover,
the very language in which the actors in these
mysteries spoke must have been hateful to ears
which found offence in every vernacular. The
Italian scholars had long been in the habit of
writing plays in imitation of the ancients ; and in
Germany, towards the end of the fifteenth century,
Keuchlin had produced Latin plays which were
represented by the students of Heidelberg. In
England, also, somewhat later, Nicolas Udall
wrote Latin plays to be acted by his boys at
Eton during the long winter nights.4
1 Epist. xxvii. » Vita Swa.
3 Hallam, Lit. of the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 430.
* Ibid. p. 433.
OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES. 121
In his performance of this task Buchanan wrote
in all four plays during his stay in Bordeaux. Two
of these plays were merely translations of the Medea
and Alcestis of Euripides, a poet for whom Buchanan
seems to have shared all the admiration of Milton.
In the case of the Medea, he says (and the fact is
interesting as bearing on the knowledge of Greek
possessed by scholars of Buchanan's standing) that
he did not write it with a view to publication, but
that in setting himself to learn Greek without a
master, he might in the process of translation weigh
more carefully the meaning of each word.1 Of his
two original dramas, Jephthes and Baptistes, the
former, as he himself justly thought, is undoubtedly
much the more striking dramatic performance. The
story of Jephthah and his daughter is clearly one
which presents all the materials for tragedy of the
highest order ; and Buchanan, shackled though he
is by conventional forms and a dead language, has
certainly risen to the greatness of his theme. His
conception of Jephthah and his daughter Iphis is
indeed quite Miltonic in intensity and elevation.
But here, again, we can but express regret that
there should have been lost to Buchanan's native
literature a talent which even under such untoward
conditions could achieve so much.
But if his Jephthes be the greater drama, Bap-
tistes is much the more interesting in its bearing
on the poet's character and opinions. Of all his
writings up to this date, this drama is the one
which most clearly indicates Buchanan's leanings
in politics and religion. It is always hazardous to
draw dogmatic conclusions from so impersonal a
1 Epist. xxvii.
122 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
production as a drama. In the case of the Bap-
tistes, however, the choice of subject is so significant,
its bearing on the questions of Buchanan's own
day is so obtrusive, that we seem justified in in-
ferring that its leading sentiments express the
strong leanings of the writer. Strictly speaking,
indeed, the piece is hardly a drama at all, but
simply a series of dialogues which naturally end
with the death of the Baptist. There is no attempt
at a plot, and there is not a single dramatic incident.
Its interest for those for whom it was written must
have lain simply in the sentiments of the dialogues,
and the persons with whom these sentiments might
be identified. If the piece was actually represented,
the spectators could have had little difficulty in
finding modern representatives for all its leading
personages. John the Baptist himself, who is for
laying the axe to the very root of Jewish tradition,
is the unmistakable prototype of any fiery refor-
mer (Berquin, for example), who in Buchanan's own
day would be content with nothing less than a
return to the ante-papal Church of the first cen-
turies. Malchus, the high priest, who is the intoler-
ant upholder of tradition in all its length and
breadth, who insists on finding in every novel reli-
gious doctrine an attack on the State no less than
on the Church, and who has no mercy in his dealings
with what he deems heresy, undoubtedly stood in
Buchanan's mind for his own relentless pursuer,
Cardinal Beaton. The people of Bordeaux, how-
ever, would see in Malchus a personage nearer
home, their own Archbishop, Charles de Grammont,
as keen a hunter of heresy as Beaton, and who, as
we shall presently see, had his eyes on Buchanan
OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES. 123
himself.1 Herod, with his temporising policy to-
wards the Baptist, could hardly but suggest
Francis i/s past attitude towards the religious
difficulties of the day ; and Herod's final surrender
of John might with no excess of ingenuity have
found its modern application in Francis's surrender
of Berquin. To those whose sympathy went with
reform in religion, Herodias the queen, with her
overweening notions of the royal prerogative and
her detestation of all religious novelties, must have
seemed the true prototype of Louise of Savoy, the
Queen-mother, who since the beginning of the
religious troubles had stood by Beda and the Sor-
bonne in their most intolerant action.
It seems hardly possible that such a play could
have been represented at Bordeaux at this period.
Gouve'a himself, it is to be remembered, was an
orthodox Catholic, and held several benefices in the
Church. It is not likely, therefore, that he would
permit his scholars to make acquaintance with a
production which so plainly inculcated the most
revolutionary opinions in matters of State and
Religion. Moreover, in Bordeaux for some years
past, a genuine alarm had arisen at the spread of
heresy in its midst. So early as 1525 persecution
on account of religion had begun in the town ; and
in 1534 the principal and regents had been sum-
moned before the Parliament to render account of
the fact that books of a heretical tendency had been
found within the walls of the College.2 About the
very time Baptistes may have been written (1541),
the first burning for heresy in Bordeaux took place.
If we remember also that the eyes of the Archbishop
1 Gaullieur, p. 163. 2 Ibid. p. 153.
124 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
were continually on the school, it is difficult to
believe that the play was actually put on the stage
by Gouvea. That certain of Buchanan's dramas were
represented we have the conclusive testimony of
Montaigne, who expressly tells us " that he played
the chief parts in the Latin tragedies of Buchanan,
Guerente, and Muret, which were represented in
the College of Guienne with dignity".1
The Baptistes is, in truth, but the poetical
draft of his famous tract De Jure Regni apud
Scotos, whose publication long afterwards made him
known to Europe as a political revolutionary. In
1576 Buchanan dedicated this drama to King
James in a characteristic letter. " This little book,"
he tells his Majesty, " must seem to have a peculiar
interest for yourself, inasmuch as it sets before you
in the clearest manner what torments and miseries
tyrants endure, even when they appear to be most
prosperous. And this lesson I deem not merely
beneficial, but absolutely necessary for you, so that
you may early begin to detest what it must be
always your duty to avoid. Moreover, I wish my
book to be a standing witness with posterity that
not with your teachers 2 but yourself rested the
fault, if impelled by evil counsellors or your own
undue desire of power, you should ever depart from
the lessons you have received."
Long afterwards, in the critical year 1642, a
translation of the Baptistes was published under the
suggestive title, " Tyrannical Government Anato-
mised : being the Life and Death of John the
1 Montaigne, Essais, Liv. i. ch. xxv.
a At the time the dedication was written Buchanan was acting as
tutor to James.
OCCASIONAL POEMS AND TRAGEDIES. 125
Baptist." By one of his editors this translation
was assigned to no less a person than Milton. We
know that Milton read and admired Buchanan,
but this translation is not his.1 Yet the whole
drift of the drama is such as would meet Milton's
most ardent approval. To the religious and political
situation of 1642 it had an even more piquant ap-
plication than to the circumstances of the tune at
which it was written. No Puritan reader could fail
to see Charles i. in Herod, Laud in Malchus, and
Henrietta Maria in Herodias.
During his three years' sojourn in Bordeaux
Buchanan had never been without uneasiness from
the action of Cardinal Beaton and the Franciscans.
Beaton, indeed, had even gone so far as to write a
letter to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, urging him to
have Buchanan arrested as a heretic. Fortunately
the letter had passed into the hands of certain of
Buchanan's most attached friends, who put him on
his guard. The death of James v. in 1542 gave
Beaton other matters to think of than the heresies
of Buchanan, and a plague that devastated Aqui-
taine diverted the thoughts of his persecutors in
Bordeaux. At the end of 1542, or the beginning
of 1543, Buchanan left that city, though for what
reason has not been clearly ascertained.2
1 Professor Masson assures ine of this.
2 There is nothing in the records of the College de Guyenne to indi-
cate when or why Buchanan left Bordeaux. Buchanan's mention of the
plague does not help us, since such plagues were then of common occur-
rence. We must therefore fall back on his own statement that he
spent three years in Bordeaux. As we can fix the date of his arrival in
that city, we infer that he must have left it either at the end of 1542 or
the beginning of 1543. It has been shown above that there is absolutely
no ground for supposing that on his departure from Bordeaux Buchanan
went to reside with Montaigne in the country.
CHAPTER IX.
PARIS PORTUGAL.
1542-1552.
IN 1542, or possibly 1543, therefore, Buchanan left
Bordeaux, and from, this date till his journey to
Portugal in 1547, we all but lose sight of him. In
his own account of his life he ignores these years
altogether. The true inference from his silence
seems to be that during this period he held no per-
manent appointment. The blank, however, is partly
made up to us by a poem belonging to this time,
which is noteworthy as being the most minutely
personal of all his productions, and which clearly
reveals to us what it was in Buchanan that gained
for him the affectionate reverence of his friends.
This poem bears the date 1544, and from certain of its
references we gather that when he wrote it Buchanan
was once more back in Paris. As it happens, this
exactly tallies with two other testimonies l to the
effect that along with two other scholars of the
first order, Turnebe and Muret, he taught at this
date in the College du Cardinal Lemoine.2
1 Moreri states that Buchanan, Turnebe, and Muret taught in the
College du Cardinal Lemoine at the same time. If they did so, it could
only have been about 1546. Nicole Bourbon assured Manage of the
same circumstance ( Anti-Baillet, torn. i. p. 328). But M. Dejob
(Appendice A to his Vie de Muret) is disposed to think that Muret, at
least, could not have been in Paris at that date.
2 Jourdain, Excursions Historiques, chap. xii.
126
PARIS. 127
Unfortunately the records of this College are so
defective that no satisfactory account of it is possible
as in the case of Ste. Barbe. Founded in 1302
by Cardinal Jean Lemoine, with provision for only
three students of arts and four of theology, by the
sixteenth century it had taken rank with the first of
the Colleges of Paris. It had been founded mainly
to favour the study of theology, but from the
beginning special provision had been made for the
Arts course, and in time it had come to be a
colUge de plein exercice. By the sixteenth century
it was one of the schools in Paris that opened
their doors most readily to the new studies. In
1528 it took what even at that date was the
revolutionary step of instituting a course of Greek ;
and it is perhaps worth noting that Bonchamp, the
regent who taught it, had as one of his pupils
Jacques Amyot, so interesting in the history of
literature as the translator of Plutarch. This liberal
spirit in the College du Cardinal Lemoine explains
how Buchanan, now so well known for his zeal for
the new studies, found a place there. In the large
majority of the Paris colleges he would certainly
have been the last man to be admitted within their
walls.
The elegy above mentioned is entitled, " Ad
Ptolemaeum Luxium Tastaeum et Jacobum Tevium,
cum articulari morbo laboraret." Both of these
scholars had been among Buchanan's most intimate
friends at Bordeaux ; and to the former he has ad-
dressed a special poem, which proves that the very
closest relation existed between them.1 The second,
de Teyve, had been one of Buchanan's colleagues at
1 Silvae, ii.
128 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Bordeaux, and he afterwards made one of that re-
markable band of scholars who accompanied Andre
de Gouve'a to Portugal. As the title indicates, the
poem was written in illness — illness so severe, indeed,
that he seems to have had grave doubts as to his
ultimate recovery. One half of the poem is taken
up with the account of his " case " ; and if we may
draw definite conclusions from its poetical exaggera-
tions, he must have been suffering from a singular
complexity of ailments — gout, dropsy, asthma, and
racking cough. After he has given this vivid pic-
ture of the state to which he is reduced, he turns to
his friends, and addresses them in words which put
us in closer touch with the man Buchanan than almost
any other piece of writing he has left us. They are
emphatically the words of one to whom friendship is
a necessity, and who had that unbounded confidence
in the affection of his friends which begets enthu-
siasm. " Such," he proceeds, " are the dire images
of death and death-bringing want that visit me.
Nor by my side have I my Tastaeus and Tevius,
whose pleasant converse would make the long day
short. Neither is my sick heart refreshed by the
learning and eloquence of my other friends of the
Gascon school. Yet amid all my ills tried friends
have not wholly deserted me. Often Groscollius
expounds to me the virtues of his herbs, and helps
to cheer me by his kind counsel. Often the skill
and experience of Carolus Stephanus l brings relief
to my suffering. Turnebus, that pride of the Muses,
suffers not a day to pass without the offices of friend-
ship. And though other blessings fail me, the pious
care of my comrade Gelida supplies the place of
1 One of the notable family of the Estiennes.
PABIS. 129
father and fatherland alike. While it is day, my
lot is thus made light. With the coming of night
an army of cares raise their sighs around me, and a
thousand shapes haunt my dreams. In the silence
of the darkness your forms come before me, and
make the night-watches short with beguiling words.
Yet, though vain and all too brief is this delight, 'tis
sweet even thus to know the presence of those we
love. Perchance, also, in the dreams of the night,
I may, ghost-like, stand by your couch, and in words
mingled with sighs bewail the hardness of my un-
toward lot. And ye, dreams, sweetest pledges of
the night, let not grief for me touch my absent
friends ; alone let me bear the burden of my fate.
But if inexorable doom shall move me hence before
my day, late may the tale reach the ears of my
Tastaeus and Tevius. And ye, of one mind and one
soul, cease from tears, and grieve me not with
your lament when I am gone."
Buchanan was now on the verge of his fortieth
year, yet he was still as far as ever from a settled posi-
tion in life. With his advancing years and uncertain
health, homeless and an exile, he must needs have
had gloomy hours at the thought of his probable
future. As far as is known, he never seems to have
thought of marriage. It is to be remembered, how-
ever, that till the middle of the sixteenth century,
marriage was discountenanced among the members
of the lay faculties of law, medicine, and arts. It
was not till 1598, indeed, that doctors of law in the
University of Paris were permitted to marry, the
privilege being granted on the ground that so few
Churchmen then thought of studying law.1 Only
1 Crevier, Histoire de I' Universit^ de Paris, vol. vii. p. 84.
I
130 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
in 1576 were Masters of Arts who were married
allowed to teach in the University.1 What shows
also that a strong prejudice against marriage existed
in the Faculty itself is that it actually passed a
decree in 1588 excluding married men from the
right of voting in their Nations.2 This objection
to the marriage of public teachers does not appear
to have been so strong in the provinces.3
As we gather from a poem written afterwards
in Portugal, Buchanan must have left Paris not
later than 1545.4 How or where he spent the next
three years has not been discovered.5 When next
we hear of him it is again in connection with the
great principal, Andre" de Gouvea, who in response
to an invitation, or rather command, of John in.,
in 1547 set out for Portugal to take the temporary
superintendence of a new college in connection
with the lately founded University of Coimbra.
John, it appears, had very greatly at heart the
success of the new institution. It is said of him
that he was acquainted with every detail in the
working of the various colleges of the University,
and that he knew all the students by name. Coim-
bra had been the original seat of the University,
but in 1377 it had been tranferred to Lisbon. John
had restored it to its original seat with the inten-
1 Crevier, vi. 331. 2 Ibid. vi. 400.
3 " Uxorem ducere, extra Lutetiatn, in omnibus omnium civitatum
scholia probatissimum est." — Gelidae Epistolae xv., quoted by Gaullieur,
p. 191.
4 Silvae, iii. In this poem, entitled "Desiderium Lutetiae", he
states that he has not seen Paris for seven years. As this poem bears
evidence that it was written in Portugal, and Buchanan left that country
in 1552, we are led to the conclusion in the text.
5 In his History (p. 11) Buchanan casually mentions that he was in
Toulouse in 1544. With the kind assistance of several French scholars
I have made many attempts to come upon traces of Buchanan during
this period, but with no success.
PORTUGAL. 131
tion that, started in a new career, it should make
an era in the history of his kingdom. With such a
scheme in his mind, he could not but think of the
Portuguese Gouve'a, whose capacity as an adminis-
trator had made the success of the College de
Guyenne. So early as 1543, indeed, John had been
in communication with him regarding the new
College, and before his present journey Gouve'a had
already made two visits to Portugal in connection
with the same object.
The next five years of Buchanan's life were
spent in Portugal ; and from the fact that out of the
five pages that make his autobiography two are
devoted to the story of these years, it would seem
that he regarded them as the most remarkable in
his life. He had certainly excellent reason for
thinking so. The whole character of this enter-
prise of Gouve'a, so completely in the spirit of
humanism ; the signal miscarriage of its main object,
the distinction of the scholars engaged in it, the
ill-fortune of most of them ; above all, Buchanan's
own unhappy experiences — all this must have
made him look back on those years as the most
memorable passage in his history.
When Gouvea proposed to Buchanan to make
one of the band of scholars about to proceed to
Coimbra under his direction, he readily assented.
France, he tells us, was fast becoming an impossible
place for men of peaceful inclinations. All Europe
was either already ablaze with war, or at least
would soon be so. Moreover, it was not as if he
were going forth alone into a strange land. There
would be those with him, de Teyve and filie Vinet
in the number, who had for years been his very
132 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
closest friends. Altogether, the prospects of the
expedition seemed so alluring that Buchanan
thought himself justified1 in persuading his brother,
Patrick, to make one of the company. It was
towards the end of March 1547 — almost, therefore,
on the very day of the death of Francis I. — that
Gouvea and his band of scholars sailed from Bor-
deaux for Coimbra.2
The institution founded by Gouvea and his staff
was named the College of Arts. The idea of the
King was to put this College on a level with the
College de Guyenne, and the best colleges of Paris,
and so render it unnecessary for the Portuguese
youth to leave the kingdom for higher education.
With Gouvea as principal, supported by the bril-
liant scholars he had brought with him, John made
sure that everything must turn out to his wish.
And so at the outset it seemed. Under Gouvea's
management the new institution was launched
with the happiest auspices ; but before the year
was out Gouvea died, and his death, as it proved,
sealed the fate of the College.
The new College, with its foreign colony of
humanists, had been especially hateful to the
Jesuits, who had by this period secured a firm foot-
ing in Portugal. Simon Rodrigues, the celebrated
associate of Loyola, had gained the most absolute
ascendency over the mind of King John ; and, on
the death of Gouvda, all his arts were directed
towards the acquisition of the College for his com-
pany.3 The usual weapons were brought into play.
Secretly and publicly charges of heresy were ad-
1 Vita Sua. 2 Gaullieur, p. 206.
3 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 241.
PORTUGAL. 133
duced against GouveVs companions. First, three
were thrown into the prisons of the Inquisition,
and only after long confinement were brought to
trial. The trial was a mere pretence, the accusers
not even being named ; and they were again sent
to their dungeons.1 With such weapons at their
disposal, the Jesuits had not long to wait the
attainment of their end. One morning the Provin-
cial of their Order presented himself at the gate of
the College of Arts with a signed order. The order
came from the King, and it bore that thencefor-
ward the College was under the absolute control of
the Society of Jesus.2
It seems to have gone harder with Buchanan
than with the rest of his colleagues. But as his
own account of his adventures is the only one we
possess, it is best that we should here listen to his
own words : "It was on Buchanan, as a foreigner,
with very few friends either to take pleasure in his
safety, to grieve at his misfortune, or avenge his
wrongs, that they heaped the greatest insults and
injuries. His poem against the Franciscans was
made a charge against him ; yet before he left
France he had stipulated with the King of Portugal
that this offence should be overlooked. Moreover,
his accusers were really unacquainted with the
nature of that satire, as the one copy of it had been
given to the King of Scots, at whose instance it
had been written. He was accused of having eaten
flesh in Lent, which, in fact, every one in Spain
does ; and it was urged against him that he had made
certain injurious reflections regarding the monks, in
which, indeed, none but a monk could have found
1 Quicherat, vol. i. p. 241. 2 Jbid.
134 THE LIFE OP GEORGE BUCHANAN.
offence. But what gave rise to the bitterest feel-
ings against him was that in a certain confidential
conversation with some young Portuguese, when
the subject of the Eucharist came up for discussion,
he had affirmed that Augustine was far more with
the heretics than the Church in his teaching on that
subject. Jean Talpin, a native of Normandy, and
Joannes Ferrerius,1 a native of Liguria, gave evid-
ence, as he learned long afterwards, that they had
it on the most trustworthy authority that at heart
Buchanan was no good Catholic. But to be brief : —
After the inquisitors for a year and a half had worn
out his and their own patience, lest they should be
supposed to have persecuted to no purpose one not
altogether unknown to fame, they shut him up for
some months in a monastery, in order that he might
be more accurately instructed by the-inonks, who
proved, indeed, neither unkindly ^or ill-disposed,
though they were utterly ignorant of religious truth.
It was mainly at this time that he translated his
Psalms into various measures. At length, being
restored to liberty, he asked permission of the
King to return to France. The King, however,
requested him to remain, and supplied him with
means sufficient for his daily wants. But sick of
delays and uncertain hopes, he embarked at Lisbon
in a Cretan ship, and sailed for England." 2
1 This is the Ferrerius known in Scottish literature as connected
with the Monastery of Kinloss. Cf. Stuart, Records of the Monastery of
Kinloss.
2 VitaSua.
CHAPTER X.
EROTIC VERSES AND PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS.
BUCHANAN'S Latin version of the Psalms, we have
seen, was produced mainly during his sojourn in
Portugal ; and it throws a curious light, both on the
man and his time, when we learn that to the same
period belong the most objectionable of his erotic
verses — those, namely, addressed to Leonora.1 When
we remember, also, that Buchanan had turned his
fortieth year when he wrote these verses, we see
how entirely factitious was the world in which these
humanists lived, how their whole life was a strain-
ing after modes of thought, of feeling, of expression,
which the Christian tradition they sought to ignore
had for ever made impossible. This writing of
erotic poetry made, in fact, an essential part of the
discipline of the scholars of the Renaissance. If a
scholar made any pretensions to be a poet, and there
were few of them who did not make the pretension,
he must have given proof of a happy turn in speak-
1 This can easily be paralleled. Marc-Antoine Muret, whom we have
seen as possibly the colleague of Buchanan at the College du Cardinal
Lemoine, was one of the most brilliant humanists of his time. In 1552
he delivered in Paris a Discourse on the Excellence of Theology. In tlie
same year he published his Juvenilia (dedicated to a Councillor of the
Parliament of Paris), in which he permits himself the greatest licence of
expression ; and the next year his Commentaire sur les Amours de
Ronsard. — Dejob, Marc-Antoine Muret, p. 21.
135
136 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
ing the language of Catullus or Tibullus, or others
of the amatory poets of antiquity. The Italian
poets of the preceding century had led the way
in this exercise, and had done to death every
word and phrase in the vocabulary of this species of
poetry. It is needless to say that, in the matter of
absurdity and obscenity, they had fairly outdone
their masters. As Italy had been the inspirer of
the new learning, the example of her scholars could
not but be followed by their imitators beyond the
Alps. The fashion of writing these erotic verses,
therefore, became all but universal in every country
where Latin verse was cultivated — in Scotland,
notably, among the rest.
The remarkable thing, however, is that the
licence of expression in these productions by no
means implies laxity of life in their writers. Beza,
who was certainly one of the rankest offenders of his
century in this matter, solemnly assures us that
though his Muse was loose his life was chaste.
Doubtless there were exceptions, as in the case of
Muret, whose life was an exceedingly practical com-
mentary on the grossness of his verse.1 But for the
most part the cultivation of this species of poetry
was simply a discipline, an avenue to distinction,
which the humanists, the most hungry for fame of
all the generations of men of letters, could not afford
to neglect. As the subject, however, is one which
is not only of importance towards a true estimate of
Buchanan, but one which touches the deepest life of
the time, it is as well that we should understand
1 M. Dejob, Muret's latest biographer, is of opinion that the charges
of unnatural crime brought against Muret are but too well founded.
— Marc-Antoine Muret, p. 55.
EROTIC VERSES. 137
how this erotic verse was regarded by the humanists
themselves.
In publishing his Juvenilia1 at Paris in 1548,
Beza, then in his twenty-ninth year, accompanies
them with a dedication to Melchior Wolmar, a man
of severe and simple virtue. Wolmar was, in truth,
the last man to whom Beza would have submitted
for approval what he knew himself to be unseemly.
" Although many grave and learned men," he begins
in his Preface, " have taken objections to such
poems as make up this volume, for my own part I
could never help spending some time in composing
them, whether from natural predilection, or from a
conviction that this manner of cultivating one's style
is neither frivolous nor useless. This conviction
was deepened by the weight of your judgment,
which alone would be enough to make me adopt
any opinion. Moreover, from the letter you sent me
from Tubingen, I understand that these same verses
of mine had the most cordial approval of yourself
and Camerarius. Accordingly, I have long had the
wish to see them collected in one volume, convinced
as I am that no sensible person could find fault
with what is given to the world with your approval
and on your persuasion." Afterwards, indeed, when
Beza had identified himself with Geneva, he had
qualms of conscience on account of his youthful
effervescence. But at that period he had ceased to
be the humanist, and had become the theologian
pure and simple. What the dedication proves is,
1 As is well known, the verses to Candida in this collection have their
own place in the religious controversies in which Beza afterwards came
to be engaged. It should be said that about the time these verses were
published,°JBeza delivered lectures on the Epistle to the Romans and
the Epistles of Peter.
138 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
that to scholars like Wolmar and Camerarius, the
friend and follower of Luther and Melanchthon, the
most licentious forms of verse were simply ingenious
exercises in Latinity, which afforded rival humanists
the opportunity of proving their skill.
There is, indeed, no product of humanism that
more clearly brings before us the complete breach it
had made with all the traditions of the Middle Ages
than these endless lines to Phyllis, Amaryllis,
Leonora, Pancharis, Candida, and the rest. The
humanists had broken with the scholastic philo-
sophy, and in large degree also with the doctrines
of the Church. These verses show that they had
also broken with the sentiment of the Middle Ages,
as expressed in the best troubadours, in Dante, and
in Petrarch. That attitude towards woman (so dis-
tinct from the attitude of antiquity) which resulted
from the combined influence of Christianity and
chivalry, and which finds expression in the Pro-
ven£al poets, is not understood by the erotic poets
of the Renaissance. Of the spiritualised passion of
Dante, or the " almost unearthly sentiment " of
Petrarch, they have no approach to a suggestion.
Their love-verses are as purely sensual in their
inspiration as those of Ovid or Catullus. Yet, as
has already been said, it is hardly accurate to speak
of inspiration in connection with them. Their erotic
verses are rightly regarded simply as more or less
ingenious attempts to reproduce the feeling of an
age divided from their own by a new civilisation.
It was left for Goethe, the Pagan born out of
due time, in his Roman elegies, to reproduce in
a modern tongue the unconscious naturalism of
classical antiquity.
EROTIC VERSES. 139
With one or two exceptions, the love-verses of
Buchanan consist of two sets, those addressed to
Leonora, and those addressed to Neaera. In a cer-
tain sense each of the sets constitutes a series. In
those to Leonora he seems to have taken Horace's
ode (iv.13) to Lyce as his model, and tortures his in-
vention through some twenty poems for every term
of abuse. Two of these poems might seem to indicate
that Leonora was a real person, whom Buchanan knew
in Coimbra;1 but the entire series has so essentially
the character of a mere theme, that it is difficult to
avoid the conclusion, supported as it is by other
evidence, that she is a mere creation of the poet's
fancy. The verses addressed to Neaera are of a
more pleasing description, and everywhere display
Buchanan's talent for piquant turns of thought and
felicitous expression. Like the verses to Leonora,
they are all in one strain ; only in Neaera's case her
beauty and charm is the theme. One, at least, of
these poems, deserves to be quoted as having found
a place in most subsequent collections of epigrams : —
Ula mihi semper praesenti dura Neaera,
Me, quoties absum, semper abesse dolet.
Non desiderio nostri, non moeret amore,
Sed se non nostro posse dolore frui.
" When I am by her side, Neaera 's cold,
And, strange ! she weeps when I am gone :
Think not for love of me these tears she sheds ;
At missing mine she sheds her own."
Like Beza, Buchanan came also in his old age
to regret the indiscretions of his Muse. Writing to
a friend in 1566, he says " that he does not know
whether to be chagrined or ashamed at the trifling
character of the greater part of his poems " ; and in
1 lambon Liber, ii. ; Miscdl. vii.
140 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
another letter, dated 1579, he says that " but for
the importunities of friends, he would have con-
signed to eternal oblivion elegies, sylvae, and epi-
grams alike ". But the most interesting reference
to his erotic verse is found in a poem addressed to
Walter Haddon, one of the Masters of the Court
of Requests to Queen Elizabeth, who, after Buchanan
himself, holds the second place among the British
Latinists of his age.1 These lines, moreover, de-
serve to be quoted, as they seem to place beyond
a doubt that Leonora and Neaera were mere names
on which he exercised his fancy. Haddon, it ap-
pears, had called on his friend for a poem, such as
he had once known so well how to turn. But
Buchanan, now on the verge of his sixtieth year,
thus replies : "In vain you challenge an old man
to the sallies of his youth. Even in the years when
such trifling is more seemly, rarely did the Muse
visit me, born as I was in mountainous Britain, in a
rude age, among a rude people. Now when declin-
ing age has left me a few white hairs, when I have
ah1 but told the tale of threescore years, and all my
spirits droop, Phoebus turns me a deaf ear, and the
Muses hearken not to my call. It yields me no joy
now to sing how the golden hair of Phyllis is dearer
to me than the locks of Bacchus, or to indite stinging
iambics on Neaera' s heartless want of faith." '
A poem which also belongs to this period of
Buchanan's life was once thought to be of the erotic
class ; but there can be no doubt that the Amaryllis
1 Hallam, Lit. of the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 501.
2 Nee Phyllidis me nunc juvat flavain comam
Praeferre Bacchi crinibus,
Xec in Neaerae perfidam superbiara
Saevos iambos stringere. — Liber lambon, i.
PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS. 141
to whom it is addressed is simply an allegorical
name for Paris.1 Read in this light, it is interest-
ing as showing how large a place Paris filled in the
thoughts of Buchanan. When he wrote it, he was
still in Portugal, and had already, he tells us, been
seven years exiled from the banks of the Seine, and
it is his fervent prayer that his return may not be
long delayed.
Another favourite exercise of the humanists,
besides that of writing erotic poetry, was the
metrical translation of the Psalms into Latin. This
exercise commended itself to them for a double
reason. It gave them scope for a display of their
Latinity, and it placed them on good terms with
the Church, and perhaps with their own conscience.
The double benefit to be derived from these trans-
lations— the instruction in polite letters, and the
building up of religious faith — was strongly em-
phasised by the great German reformers.2 One of
the best known of these versions is that of Eobanus
Hessus ; and to this version there were originally
prefixed commendatory epistles to the author from
Luther, Melanchthon, and Justus Jonas. All three
equally insist on the happy combination of secular
and religious instruction to be gained from such
a rendering of the Psalms. Speaking of poetry as
the efficient handmaid of religion, Luther has the
following characteristic sentence : "I confess to be
1 Warton thought that the Amaryllis, to whom Milton alludes in
Lycidas, was the Amaryllis of Buchanan ; but, as is stated above, there
can be no doubt that Buchanan's Amaryllis is merely an allegorical
name for Paris. Nevertheless, Warton may have been right in his
conjecture.
2 Knox, in his History, thus speaks of Buchanan's paraphrase of the
Psalms : " That singular work of David's Psalms, in Latin metre and
poesie, besides many others, can witness the rare grace of God given to
that man."
142 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
one of those whom poetry moves more deeply,
delights more intensely, and clings to more tena-
ciously, than any prose, be it the prose of Cicero or
Demosthenes himself." "I give it to you as my
fixed conviction," says Melanchthon also, " that your
edition of the Psalms is of real service, at once in
building up the piety, and in forming the judgments
of the young, and of service, moreover, in rousing
generous natures to the study of poetry." 2
Of the motives which prompted the humanists
to their innumerable versions of the Psalms, we have
also an interesting statement by one of the most
brilliant of the Italian scholars of the sixteenth
century — Marcantonio Flaminio. Flaminio is in
the first rank of modern Latin poets, and he shared
to the full the enthusiasm for classical antiquity that
distinguished all the Italian scholars. But he was also
— what few of these scholars were — a man of virtue
and simple tastes, who ardently desired a return to
purer ideals on the part of the Church.3 Such being
his character, his account of the motives that prompted
him to his version of the Psalms has a peculiar
interest. The lines in which he states these motives
are contained in an address to the reader with
which he closes his book on the Psalms.4 In the
main, it will be seen that he regards the subject in
the same light as Luther and Melanchthon — only, as
1 " Nam ego me unum ex illis esse fateor, quos poemata fortius movent,
vehementius delectant, tenaciusque in eis haereant quam soluta oratio,
sit sane vel ipse Cicero aut Demosthenes."
2 "Quare et ad pietatem et ad formanda judicia studiosae juventutis,
deinde etiam ad incitandas generosas naturas ad studium poetices,
prodesse hanc psalmorum editionem statuo."
3 Mr. J. A. Symonds has given an interesting account of Flaminio
in his Renaissance in Italy.
4 " M. Antonii Flaminii in Librum Psalmorum brevis explanatio."-
Venice, 1545.
PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS. 143
was to be expected, the humanist in Flaminio pre-
vails over the reformer. " By divine aid, Christian
reader," he says, " I have so tempered these strains
that, as thou readest, it may wellnigh be as thou
didst read the most sacred bard himself. For
though word has not been rendered by word, and I
have deemed it no sin to add much ; yet have I a
good and sure hope that nothing has been added which
David himself would disapprove, nothing which does
not make clear what is obscure, and, after the manner
of light, add some grace to the beauty of the poem ;
even as rich-hued roses and violets, garlanding her
golden locks, add grace to some beautiful maiden." l
In further illustration of the attitude of the
humanists towards these versions of the Psalms, we
have a singularly interesting passage in the dedicatory
letter with which Henri Estienne accompanied his
edition of Buchanan's paraphrase. The letter is
addressed to Buchanan himself; and in the passage
quoted it will be seen that Flaminio and his version
are made the subjects of criticism. "If any one
should object," says Estienne, " that the Scriptures
do not admit of this adornment of verse, I shall
tell him what four years ago I told an Italian in
Rome. The conversation had turned on Flaminio's
version of the Psalms, and I praised the pains he
had taken with his task.' ' The whole thing was
a wretched mistake,' he replied (he spoke in Italian,
but I give you the sense). ' From the time when
Flaminio gave himself to the Scriptures, the old
grace and neatness of his verse has deserted him.
Since he wasted his genius on these subjects, the
.... virgin! pulcherrimae
Quale decus addunt arte purpureae rosae,
Violaeque flavis crinibus circumdatae.
144 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
exquisite taste that formerly distinguished him has
got corrupted. When he now tries his hand at
some secular theme, you no longer recognise the
hand of Flaminio.'1 'If, in the translation of Scrip-
ture,' I replied, ' you mean that there should be no
false ornament, I am quite of your opinion ; for
nothing could be further removed from the spirit of
the sacred writings. But if I understand you to
mean that not even ornaments that combine dignity
and simplicity are to be allowed, then we are as
far asunder as the poles in our way of thinking.
To my mind, this is the very style the Scriptures
demand. I hold, therefore, that Flaminio's mistake
lay in this — that before he attempted the Psalms,
he crippled and enfeebled his powers in the com-
position of loose and trifling love- ditties. When he
sought to rise into a higher atmosphere, and to
deal with serious themes, he was unequal to the at-
tempt.'" These quotations seem necessary to explain
the spirit in which Buchanan must have conceived
and executed what is by far the most famous of
all his productions. The quotations are interesting,
moreover, as throwing a curious light on the atti-
tude of the humanists to the Christian tradition.
In Buchanan's paraphrase the roses and violets
of which Flaminio speaks are certainly more pro-
fusely strewn than in the versions of most other
scholars. Buchanan, in fact, has not merely done
the Psalms into Latin verse ; he has sought to give
to them the form and texture of Horatian odes.
1 " Imo," inquit ille, " (verbis quidem Italicis, sed in hunc sensum), 0
factum male: ex quo enim istis sacris se addixit, multum illius carmini
de solita elegantia et lepore decessit. Nam quum omne nvpo6r)Kiov
respuant ilia, nescio quomodo ita descivit ab illis quibus antea uti
solebat ornamentis," etc.
PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS. 145
Where it was necessary to mark the continuity and
development of the thought, he never scrupled to
supply what he judged to be the missing links.
The result is that in Buchanan's version a Psalm of
David ceases to be what it frequently is — a series of
disjointed utterances making no organic whole, and
becomes a coherent poem with a beginning and an
end. His ideal of translation was that of Cowley in
rendering his two odes of Pindar : " not so much to
let the reader know what the author spoke, but
what was his way and manner of speaking "-1 As
we must think with our better lights regarding
Pindar and the writers of the Psalms, both Cowley
and Buchanan in their respective renderings were
the width of heaven from " the way and manner " of
their originals.
But whatever we may think of the merit of
Buchanan's version, it was undoubtedly the work
that did most for his immediate and posthumous
reputation. It was in the title-page of their two
editions of Buchanan's Psalms that Henri and
Robert Estienne assigned him the distinction of
being poetarum nostri saeculi facile princeps. In
the dedicatory letter above quoted, Henri puts the
version of Buchanan in comparison with those of
Eobanus Hessus, Flaminius, Salmonius Macrinus,
and Rapicius, all among the best Latin versifiers of
their day, and finds that of Buchanan superior to
them all. This dictum of Estienne was long indorsed
by the scholars of the Continent. " Henri Estienne,"
says Maittaire, " was the first who placed Buchanan
at the head of all the poets of his day, and all
France, Italy, and Germany have since subscribed
1 Cowley : Preface to Pindarique Odts,
K
146 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
to the same opinion, and conferred that title upon
him."1 The tributes to the merits of Buchanan's
paraphrase form, in truth, an interesting commen-
tary on the literary ambition of the Latinists of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. " Virgil/'
says Guy Pat in, "never made better verses than
Buchanan, and fifteen centuries were needed to
produce another poet like Virgil." 2 The saying of
the Pere Bourbon, also, as reported by Menage, has
often been quoted — that he would rather be the
author of Buchanan's Psalms than Archbishop of
Paris. Cowley is more critical, yet he admits
Buchanan's superiority to all rivals. Speaking of
the various translations of the Psalms, he says :
" Bucanan himself (though much the best of all
these translators, and indeed a great person) comes
in my opinion no less short of David than his
country of Judaea." Even in Buchanan's lifetime
his Psalms were introduced into the schools of
Germany; and so early as 1585 an edition set to
music was published.3 In Scotland they made^a
regular part of Latin reading in schools till a com-
paratively recent period; and, according to Mr.
Hill Burton, " their use as text-books gave a
vitality to the teaching of Latin in Scotland it
could not easily achieve elsewhere." *
Buchanan's most formidable rival in this his
most famous work has been his own countryman,
1 Quoted by Hallam, Literature of the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 147.
2 Guy Patin, Ldtre 151.
3 Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 118.
4 Scot A broad, vol. ii. p. 33. In a note to the next page, Mr. Hill
Burton states that " it was a fine intellectual treat to find the late Dr.
Melvin of Aberdeen exercising his first form on Buchanan's Psalms".
Professor Masson informs me that they were read on Saturdays in the
fourth and fifth classes.
PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS. 147
Arthur Johnston. Round the respective merits of
each quite a lively controversy arose during the
sixteenth century, and certain of Buchanan's most
fervent admirers were even wroth that Johnston
should nave had the audacity to enter the lists
against his great countryman. Nevertheless, a few
scholars, both British and foreign, have been of
opinion that in elegance of diction, as well as in
fidelity to the original, Johnston has the advan-
tage.1 Johnston himself, however, frankly admitted
Buchanan's superiority, and there can be little
doubt that he judged aright. Johnston has con-
fined himself almost exclusively to elegiac metre,
and he evidently made a point of keeping more
closely to his original than Buchanan. But in
real poetic feeling and easy mastery of language
Buchanan leaves Johnston far behind. For the
modern English reader it is doubtless hard to feel
either interest or pleasure in any of these attempts
to make King David speak the language of Horace
and Virgil. Accustomed as he is from childhood to
the noble simplicities of the English version, he is
apt to find but little satisfaction in the most suc-
cessful even of Buchanan's renderings. Yet few
who know Buchanan's version of the 137th Psalm
will refuse to admit that with all its classical sug-
gestions, and in spite of its wide departure from the
true spirit of Hebrew poetry, it possesses an inde-
1 Hallam passes the following adverse criticism on Buchanan's para-
phrase : " It is difficult, perhaps, to find one of Buchanan's Psalms,
except the 137th, with which he has taken particular pains, that can be
called truly elegant or classical Latin poetry." — Lit. of the Mid. Ages,
vol. ii. p. 147. " So different are the humours of critics ! " as Hallam
himself remarks in a note on this very passage. Hallam's criticism
here, as in so many other cases, is that of the scholar rather than the
sympathetic reader.
148 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
pendent charm of its own that lays criticism asleep.
The following renderings of the 23d Psalm by
Buchanan and Johnston respectively will give an
idea of their different styles of translation. A
literal English translation of the same Psalm will
bring before the reader the striking contrast be-
tween what has been called the "lightning-like
effect " l of the original and what once passed for
faithful translation : —
Jehovah is my shepherd ; I shall not want. In pastures of young
grass he maketh me lie down ; by the waters of resting-places doth he
gently lead me.
He refreshes my soul ; he leads me in right tracks for his name's
sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of deadly shade, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me ; thy club and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou furnishest a table before me in the presence of my foes ;
thou hast anointed my head with oil, my cup runs over.
Surely good fortune and loving-kindness shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah for length
of days.
The following is the version of Buchanan :—
Quid frustra rabidi me petitis Canes ?
Livor, propositum cur premis improbum ?
Sicut pastor ovem, me Dominus regit ;
Nil deerit penitus mihi.
Per campi viridis mitia pabula,
Quae veris teneri pingit amoenitas,
Nunc pascor placide ; nunc saturum latus
Fessus molliter explico.
Purae rivus aquae leniter astrepens
Membris restituit robora languidis,
Et blando recreat fomite spiritus
Solis sub face torrida.
Saltus quum peteret mens vaga devios
Errorum teneras illecebras sequens,
1 The expression is Dr. Cheyne's ; and the translation is that given
by him in the Parchment Library. Buchanan's paraphrase was, of
course, made from the Vulgate. We have no evidence that he was
acquainted with Hebrew.
PARAPHRASE OF THE PSALMS. 149
Retraxit miserans denuo me bonus
Pastor justitiae in viam.
Nee si per trepidas luctifica manu
Intentet tenebras mors mihi vulnera
Fonnidem duce te pergere ; me pedo
Securum facies tuo.
Tu mensas epulis accumulas, merum
Tu plenis pateris sufficis, et caput
Unguento exhilaras : conficit aemulos,
Dum spectant, dolor anxius.
Me numquam bonitas destituat tua,
Profususque bonis perpetuo favor ;
Et non sollicitae longa domi tuae
Vitae tempora transigam.
We now give Johnston's rendering : —
Elandus ut upilio, me pascit Conditor orbis :
Ne mihi quid desit, providus ille cavet.
Dat satur ut recubem pratorum in gramine molli :
Ducit et ad. rivos lene sonantis aquae.
Cor recreat, rectique viam mihi monstrat et aequi :
Illius ut laudes laetus in astra feram.
Non ego degeneri quaterer formidine, leti
Ante oculos quamvis vallis opaca foret :
Tu, Deus ! es praesto, baculo vestigia firmans
Ne titubem : vires restituisque meas.
Hoste palam tu das plenis accumbere mensis ;
Et mihi regales porrigis ipse dapes :
Tu caput irroras succo felicis olivae ;
Sufficis et larga pocula plena manu.
Me tua defendet bonitas, dum lumine vescar ;
Per salebras gressus diriget ilia meos.
Inque tuis adytis, reruni Pater alme ! morabor ;
Hie, ubi perpetuo gaudia laetus again.
CHAPTER XL
FRANCE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE MARECHAL
DE BEISSAC.
BUCHANAN, we have seen, left Portugal for England
in 1552. His sojourn in England at this time must
have been even shorter than on the occasion of his
former visit. Some inducement, it appears, was held
out to him to make his stay longer ; but the state
of the country was such that it was no home for
peaceful students like himself.1 As it must have
been towards the end of 1552 that he arrived in
England, his description of the state of the country
must refer to the strifes of Somerset and North-
umberland, and the subsequent intrigues of the latter
to secure the accession of his son to the throne as
the husband of Lady Jane Grey.
As the time had not yet come when Scotland
could be a place for men of his tastes, there was
but one other country open to him — France. But
if France had become an almost impossible abode
for the scholar when he left it in 1547, things had
1 " Nee hie tamen substitit, quamquam honestis conditionibus invi-
taretur. Erant enim illic omnia adhuc turbida sub rege adolescente,
proceribus discordibus, et populi adhuc animis tumescentibus ab recent!
motu civili." — Vita Sua.
150
ENGAGEMENT WITH MARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 151
hardly improved in that country during his absence.
Henry n., who had succeeded his father on the
throne, was no patron of letters like Francis ; and
in the matter of religion he had the unwavering
conviction that, save where his own interests were
concerned, it was the highest crime in a ruler to
give any quarter to heretics. The persons who had
most influence with him, Diane de Poitiers, Con-
stable Montmorency, and the Guises, all in strict
subservience to their own interests, drove him to
that policy which before the end of the cen-
tury was wellnigh to wreck France as a nation.
They drove him to the continuance of the fatal
wars with Charles v. and his successor Philip,
which, as far as Henry was concerned, were to
end in one of the most ignominious arrangements
France ever entered into — the Peace of Cateau-
Cambresis in 1559, the year of Henry's own death.1
From Buchanan's arrival in France till the date of
that treaty the nation was engaged in continuous
war either in Italy or on the banks of the Rhine.
In Italy, the conduct of the Mare"chal de Brissac,
with whom we shall presently see Buchanan in
honourable relations, won a certain success for
France ; and the capture of Calais from the
English, and the brilliant defence of the lately
acquired town of Metz, helped to blind the country
to the disastrous results of the policy of the Govern-
ment. To this mistaken foreign policy was joined
the even more infatuated home policy of merciless
persecution for religious opinion. As his war with
the Emperor forced Henry into an alliance with the
Protestants of Germany, he sought to redeem his
1 H. Martin, Histoire de France, vol. viii. chap. xlix.
152 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
character as an orthodox son of the Church by all
the more remorseless persecution of heretics at
home. Almost at the beginning of his reign, a
chamber, known as la chambre ardente, was estab-
lished in the Parliament for special dealing with all
suspected of heresy.1 The persecution became so
close and merciless that crowds of Frenchmen were
driven to seek an asylum in Geneva.2
Such being the state of affairs in France during
this period, it is certainly noteworthy that Buchanan
should have found himself at his ease in that country,
and that he should not rather have sought in Geneva
a more congenial place of abode. As we shall see,
however, Buchanan was on perfectly good terms
with the Government, lived in intimate relations
with a French marshal known as the foe of all
heretics, and was ready with his congratulatory
odes whenever the occasion demanded them. The
true inference from all this seems to be that
Buchanan's interests as the scholar of the Renais-
sance were stronger than his interests as the re-
former of the corruptions of the Church. But, in
all probability, at no time of his life, not even after
his final adoption of the creed of the Scottish
Reformers, would he have exchanged Paris, in spite
of the Sorbonne, for Geneva and its reign of the
saints.
In one of the very happiest of his shorter poems,
Buchanan has given expression to the pleasure he
felt on finding himself once more on the soil of
France. "Farewell," he exclaims, "a long fare-
well, ye barren wastes and niggard soil of Portugal.
But hail ! happy France, kind nurse of all the arts
1 H. Martin, Histoire de France, vol. viii. chap. xlix. 2 Ibid.
ENGAGEMENT WITH MARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 153
of life, with thy wholesome skies, thy generous
tilth, thy vine-shaded hills, thy groves alive with
cattle, thy richly-watered valleys, thy plains gay
with flowers, thy rivers whose far sweep bears
down many a sail to the deep, thy pools, thy
streams, thy lakes, thy seas with their plenteous
stores ; in many a harbour receiving the world as
thy guest, bounteous in thy turn to share thy
blessings ; happy France ! with thy sweet country
homes, thy ramparted walls, thy stately castles,
and thy sons adorned with all the graces of life,
modest, courteous, pleasant of speech. . . . France !
if while I live I love and cherish thee not as one
cherishes and loves the land of his birth, then may
I return to the barren wastes and niggard soil of
Portugal."1
At the moment of Buchanan's arrival in France
the country was rejoicing at the repulse of the
Emperor Charles in his attempt to recover the
important town of Metz. As was the invariable
custom on such occasions, every scholar came forward
with his Latin ode in celebration of the triumph of
the French arms, whereby de l'H6pital said in his
ode " warlike Germany had at length yielded to
France her old superiority in battle". As an admirer
of France, Buchanan was pressed by his friends to
add his voice to the rest. He did not quite relish
the task, as it seemed to put him in competi-
tion with certain of his most intimate friends. He
felt an especial delicacy, he tells us, in seeming to
put himself in rivalry with Mellin de Saint-Gelais,
the most popular of the Court poets of the period.2
This casual mention of Saint-Gelais as one of his
1 Adventus in Galliam. 2 Vita, Sua.
154 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
intimates is of much more importance to us in an
attempt to understand Buchanan than the poem
he made to order on the successful defence of
Metz.
On the death of Clement Marot, Saint-Gelais
held for a brief season, till the appearance of Ron-
sard, the first place among the vernacular poets of
France. He has the distinction of having imported
the sonnet into French literature, and he had a
certain "witty delicacy" which won for him his
brilliant though strictly ephemeral reputation. He
was an ecclesiastic and the son of an ecclesiastic ;
and he held the post of almoner at the Court of
Henry IL, so that Buchanan may have experienced
substantial proofs of his favour.1 But what is to be
noted in Saint-Gelais in connection with Buchanan,
is thus stated by a great French critic. "Saint-
Gelais," he says, " seems to have neglected no con-
trasts which poetry could offer to his profession, and
he often made his ecclesiastical knowledge serve
him for sufficiently profane allusions." 2 His well-
known jest at the expense of the doctors who were
disputing about the nature of his case as he lay on
his deathbed — Messieurs, je vais vous lever de peine
— may be taken as illustrating the same strain in
his character. With a personage of the type of
Saint-Gelais it is utterly impossible that Knox or
Calvin could at any period of their lives have had
a single sentiment in common. Yet Buchanan
admired Saint-Gelais' verses, and was bound to
him by some tie, whether of sympathy or obliga-
tion. It is precisely in this friendly relation with
1 Nouvelle Biographie Generate.
2 Sainte-Beuve, Tableau de la Podsie Franpaise au xvie Siecle.
ENGAGEMENT WITH MARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 155
men like Saint-Gelais, taken together with his con-
tempt for the ignorance of the monks and the obscur-
antism of the theologians of the Sorbonne, that we
see in Buchanan at this period the humanist pure
and simple.1
After his arrival in France in the beginning of
1553, Buchanan appears to have made his home in
Paris for the next two years ; and at some time during
this period, as we gather from a letter addressed to
him after his final return to Scotland, he must have
filled the post of regent in the College Boncourt.
Of the details of his life during these years we
know nothing ; but we gather from his dedications
to his translations of the Medea and Alcestis of
Euripides, that his stay in France was not without
risk, and that, like other scholars during this reign, he
was in some danger of finding his way to the Place
Maubert. He had friends in high places, however,
as these dedications prove — for they are addressed
to no less distinguished persons than Margaret the
King's sister, and one of the princes of the house of
Luxembourg, both of whom, he tells us, had given
him tokens of their favour, and had shielded him
from the attacks of his enemies.
But the closest and most honourable relation
that Buchanan had with great persons in France
was that with Charles du Cosse, Comte de Brissac,
one of the marshals of France. At this time de
Brissac was in command of the French forces in
Italy ; but Buchanan must at some previous period
have had proofs of his respect and good-will. In
1 Buchanan has the following epigram on Saint-Gelais : —
Mellinum patrio sale carmina tingere jussit,
Parceret ut famae Musa, Catulle, tuae.
156 THE LIFE OF GEOKGE BUCHANAN.
1553, on de Brissac's capture of Vercelli, Buchanan
had written a congratulatory ode, manifestly in-
spired by genuine admiration for his character and
exploits. In the following year he dedicated to
him his tragedy Jephthes, and accompanied it with a
preface which does honour both to the soldier and
to the poet. It is in this preface, as has already
been mentioned, that Buchanan puts forward his
argument that there is no necessary antagonism
between war and letters. Formerly, he says, the
great captain and the great writer were frequently
conjoined. If this is no longer the case, the poet
and the soldier, at all events, can never dispense
with the function of each other. The soldier
provides the poet with the material of his song,
and thereby the soldier attains what is his para-
mount desire — immortal fame. The happy union
of distinction in war and love of letters is seen in
no one more conspicuously than in de Brissac. In
all his campaigns he never fails to surround himself
with men eminent for their learning. Of his love
for learning he has given the most conclusive proof
in the jealous care he has taken in the educa-
tion of his son. And Buchanan concludes with an
expression of gratitude for de Brissac's past favours
to him. " Before you had even seen me," he says,
"and when I was unknown to you except by repute
as a scholar, you overwhelmed me with such proofs
of your goodwill and generosity, that if I have
produced aught of any real value, if any result is
likely to come of my labours, to you must certainly
belong all the credit."
That de Brissac deserved all that Buchanan said
of him we have the most conclusive testimony from
ENGAGEMENT WITH MARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 157
many sources. There must have been in him, indeed,
a strain of magnanimity which reminds us of the
best types in Plutarch's gallery of heroes. Henry II.
had made him Governor-General of Piedmont, by
way, it is said, of ridding himself of a formidable
rival in his amours with Diane de Poitiers. In
Piedmont, de Brissac's conduct was such as to place
him among the first soldiers of France during the
sixteenth century, and with Admiral Coligny he
shares the distinction of humanising the preva-
lent modes of warfare, and of raising the char-
acter of French military discipline. An interest-
ing example is given of the manner in which he
enforced discipline among his subordinates. Since
the Emperor Charles and Francis had interchanged
cartels of defiance on the refusal of the latter to
observe the terms of the treaty of Madrid, duelling
had become more and more the fashion among the
gentlemen of France. In de Brissac's camp the
practice was strictly forbidden ; but when the
parties would not be turned from their purpose
they were allowed to proceed on one condition :
they must conduct their meeting on a narrow
bridge spanning a stream, in such fashion that the
combatant who fell must be drowned in the water
below.1 De Brissac permitted no plunder in an
enemy's country, and when a town fell into his
hands, his treatment of the inhabitants was such
as marked him out from all the commanders of the
period. Of his high-minded patriotism he gave a
striking example, when at a certain critical juncture
he sacrificed his daughter's dowry, and borrowed
money on his own personal fortune to meet the
1 H. Martin, Histoire de France, vol. viii. chap. xlix.
158 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
claims of his soldiers.1 There was therefore more
than mere courtly compliment in the title of the
fine ode which Buchanan addressed to de Brissac —
De Amore Cossaei et Aretes.
It was in 1555 that de Brissac chose Buchanan
to be tutor to his son, Timoleon du Cosse*, then a
boy of twelve. As Buchanan had the young du
Cosse" in charge for the next five years, his high
opinion of de Brissac must have been cordially
reciprocated, and it must certainly be regarded as a
high tribute at once to the character and attain-
ments of Buchanan, that a personage of the rank
and stamp of the Mare'chal de Brissac should have
chosen him from the crowd of French scholars to
this responsible post. Buchanan had every reason
to be proud of his pupil. " The Comte de Brissac,"
says Brant6me, " was one of the most perfect and
accomplished noblemen I have ever seen in our
Court. I have hardly ever seen one of them who
has not been guilty of some folly in his youth, but
de Brissac was never guilty of any." In another
place Brantome has the following remark on a
characteristic of du Cosse", which may be set down
to Buchanan's credit as his teacher : " Quant aux
vertus de Tame de ce Comte, il estoit S9avant, et
lisoit tousjours peu et peu." 2 Yet from the separate
portraits Brantdme has given us of the father and
the son, it is evident that the father had the larger
mind and nobler nature. Nevertheless, a career
as brilliant as that of his father's seemed opening
before the son, when he was killed by a musket-
ball at the age of twenty-six. Buchanan's most
1 Nouvelle Biographic Ginfoale.
2 Brantdme, Vie des Hommes Illustres.
ENGAGEMENT WITH MARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 159
ambitious poem, and that on which he meant his
fame should rest more than any other — the De
Sphaera — is the memorial of his relation with his
pupil ; for to him the poem is specially addressed.
During the five years of his engagement with
de Brissac, Buchanan was constantly coming and
going between Italy and France.1 Of his friendly
relations with the Marshal himself H. Estienne tells
the following story. ' ' The Comte de Brissac," he says,
" was in the habit of admitting George Buchanan,
the tutor of his son, to his councils of war. He was
led to do this from the following incident. On a
certain occasion Buchanan had come down from his
bedroom to the dining-room to give some order to a
domestic. As it happened, de Brissac with his staff
was deliberating in an adjoining hall on matters
of the gravest importance. Buchanan, overhearing
what was said, muttered some words of disapproval.
De Brissac noticing a smile on the face of one of his
officers, and the reason being given, Buchanan was
called in and asked for his opinion. This he did with
such sagacity that all present agreed that his sugges-
tion should be adopted. As it happened, the result
confirmed the wisdom of Buchanan's counsel." :
The beginning of his poem on the Sphere, and a
few short occasional pieces, make up the list of
Buchanan's productions during these years. His
thoughts, in fact, had now begun to take a new
direction, and his humanistic studies gave place to
a keen personal interest in the great religious
questions of the time. Till his last arrival in France,
1 ViiaSua.
2 Quoted by Kuddiman in his commentary on Buchanan's auto-
biography.
160 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
in 1553, there can be little doubt that he still con-
sidered himself a member of the Church of Rome.
Certain expressions in the poem already quoted,
Adventus in Galliam, put this beyond question. He
there speaks of France as
. . . cultrix numinis
Sincera, ritum in exterum non degener,
which can refer only to the religious innovations of
Germany and Switzerland. In his poem on the
capture of Calais in 1558, he speaks of the Pope
as Pater Romanus in a tone utterly incompatible
with Lutheran or Calvinistic leanings. But during
his last years in France, he for the first time began
to make a serious study of the questions at issue
between Rome and the Protestant reformers. His
own words are so remarkable that they deserve to
be quoted. These five years, he says, he mainly
devoted to the study of the Bible in order that he
might be able to form definite opinions for himself
on the controversies which were then exercising
the majority of men. These controversies, he pro-
ceeds, were now on the point of being settled at
home, since the Scots had got rid of the tyranny of
the Guises. Returning thither, he gave in his
adhesion to the Scottish Church. l Till the very
eve, therefore, of his final return to Scotland, and
when he was already in his fifty-fifth year, we are
bound to regard Buchanan as emphatically the
product of the Renaissance, not of the Reformation.
It was probably some time in 1561, after an
1 " Quod tempus maxima ex parte dedit sacrarum literarum studio,
ut de controversiis, quae turn majorem hominum partem exercebant,
exactius dijudicare posset ; quae turn domi conquiescere coeperant,
Scotis a tyrannide Guisiana liberatis. Eo reversus nomen ecclesiae
Scotorum dedit." — Vita Sun.
ENGAGEMENT WITH "SfARECHAL DE BRISSAC. 161
exile of twenty- two years, that Buchanan returned
to his native country ; and there, with the excep-
tion of one flying visit to Paris, and a short sojourn
in England, he thenceforth remained for the rest of
his life.
CHAPTER XII.
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS.
BY his poem entitled De Sp/iaera Buchanan doubt-
less thought that he would lay the foundations of
his fame deep enough to defy all the vicissitudes
of time. He wrote it in Latin, thus securing, as he
fancied, an unfailing succession of educated readers ;
and he chose a theme which, as he confidently anti-
cipated, linked his literary fortunes to the very
course of Nature itself. But if he had known it,
even when he wrote, modern Europe had rejected
Latin as the vehicle of its deepest thoughts and
feelings ; and what he deemed the eternal system
of the universe had been exploded some twenty
years before he began to sing it.
In thus choosing the system of things as the
subject of his most important poem, Buchanan was
only impelled by the necessities of the movement of
which he was so brilliant a representative. That
movement being essentially imitative and not crea-
tive, themes of truly human interest were debarred
to him and his fellows. Consequently, when they
aimed at the higher triumphs of their art they were
almost inevitably driven to subjects of a didactic
character. How sorely they were pressed for sub-
jects may be gathered from the titles of some of the
162
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 163
best-known poems of Italian writers of Latin verse.
Thus, we have Vida's poem on the Game of Chess
and his epic on Silk-worms, and the unsavoury
theme of Fracastorius' famous poem. But if a
didactic subject was to be chosen, there could be
few, as Hallam remarks, " which could afford better
opportunities for ornamental digression " than the
system of the heavens.1
With the exception of one or two shorter pieces,
indeed, Buchanan has produced no better poetry
than is to be found in many passages of the
Sphere. The poem was written in the full ma-
turity of his powers, and with the full conscious-
ness that he was making his greatest stroke for
fame. And in spite of the exploded hypothesis on
which the poem is based, and of all the obsolete
and grotesque notions with which it abounds, we
everywhere feel the presence of a mind and soul in
living and intimate contact with its subject. It is
perfectly evident that Buchanan wrote the poem in
the conviction that he was not only immortalising
his own genius, but that he was doing the world a
real service in expounding the true theory of the
universe. As we shall see, he was perfectly aware
of the new theory of Copernicus. To show the
folly of that theory, and to denounce the popular
astrology as leading men to unworthy views both
of themselves and the Creator — these undoubtedly
were two motives that had their influence in his
choice of a subject. It is, in truth, this ardent
feeling of an ethical purpose on the part of the poet
that even still gives to his work a certain vitality.
Buchanan's poem is in large measure only a
1 Hallaui, Lit. of the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 146.
164 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
poetical paraphrase of the famous text-book of
Joannes de Sacrobosco on the Sphere.1 Sacrobosco's
book was originally published in the thirteenth cen-
tury, and since the date of its publication it had
been the text-book of astronomy in all the great
schools of Europe. For brevity and clearness, in-
deed, it could hardly be surpassed as an exposition
of the Ptolemaic conception of the heavens. In
Buchanan's day it was as popular as ever. His
colleague at Bordeaux and intimate friend, filie
Vinet, published a new edition of it, in 1540,
with a preface, in which he states that Sacrobosco's
treatise was still unrivalled as an introduction to
the study of astronomy. But the remarkable thing
is that this book, with slight modification, remained
in use till past the middle of the seventeenth century.
In 1656, the Government of Holland gave special
orders that Sacrobosco should have a place in the
schools of that country, at the same time suggest-
ing that such alterations should be made in it as
time had made necessary. As edited by Burgers-
dicius the mediaeval Latin phraseology was altered,
and certain additions were made ; but the main
doctrine that the earth is the immovable centre of
the universe is still as confidently asserted as if
Copernicus had never lived.
It was, therefore, no perverse obscurantism in
Buchanan that between 1550 and 1560 he began
this poem with the purpose of expounding and em-
bellishing the Ptolemaic theory, though the epoch-
making treatise of Copernicus, published in 1543,
1 If Joannes de Sacrobosco — that is, John Holybush or Holywood —
were indeed, as some have supposed, a native of Scotland, he must cer-
tainly be regarded as the most famous of all the " Scots Abroad".
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 165
had shown that that theory could be replaced by one
far more simple and satisfactory. It must be remem-
bered that there were more reasons than one why the
Copernican theory was so slow to win general accept-
ance. In the first place — and this was doubtless the
strongest reason of all — the entire Christian revela-
tion was supposed to be bound up with the doctrine
that the earth was the centre of the universe. More
than a century after the death of Copernicus, Pascal
did not dare to affirm the contrary ; and it has been
noted as a proof of the courage and good sense of
la Fontaine that he spoke of the sun thus : —
L'ignorant le croit plat ; j'epaissis sa rondeur,
Je le rends immobile, et la terre chemine.1
It is to be remembered, also, that the Ptolemaic
theory actually did explain all the phenomena then
known, so that to Buchanan and his contemporaries
Copernicus passed for a revolutionary of the most
unreasonable type. It is not to be wondered at,
therefore, that during the sixteenth century the
new theory found but four supporters in the whole
of Europe.2 There was still another reason why
humanists like Buchanan should regard the new
teaching with contempt. Pythagoras, before Coper-
nicus, had taught that it was the earth that moved
and not the heavens. But Greek and Roman
antiquity alike had rejected the teaching of Pytha-
goras ; and to question the right reason of Greece
1 The case of Galileo is too well known to require mention ; and, be-
sides, he died in 1642. Milton, it will be remembered, adopts the
Ptolemaic system, though quite aware of the claims of that of Copernicus.
Addison's hymn, beginning " The spacious firmament on high," written
in the beginning of the eighteenth century, is also expressed in the
language of the old cosmogony.
2 Hallam, Lit. of the Mid. Ages, vol. ii. p. 227. Hallam names Wright
and Gilbert as the only two Englishmen who accepted the Copernican
theory during the sixteenth century.
166 THE LIFE OP GEORGE BUCHANAN.
and Rome was a flight of audacity far beyond the
scholars of Buchanan's day.
Buchanan's poem consists of five books, the last
two being incomplete ; and from internal evidence
we gather that they were all probably begun during
his engagement with de Brissac.1 That he had the
intention of completing the poem appears from two
of his letters written long after his return to Scot-
land. Writing to Tycho Brahe" in 1576, he says
that for the last two years he has been so pro-
strate with all manner of ailments that he had
been forced to desist not only from higher tasks,
but from completing his poem on the Sphere.2 To
another correspondent, also, he writes as late as
1579 : " My astronomical poem I have not so much
cast aside, as been forced sorely against my will to
give it up."3 That till within three years of his
death, when old age and protracted iUness might be
supposed to have quenched all his literary ambi-
tions, Buchanan still thought of adding the finish-
ing touches to his poem, is signal proof that he
considered the De Sphaera the most important
effort of his genius. As but few readers are likely
to make acquaintance with this the lengthiest of
all Buchanan's poems, it may be worth while to
note a few of the more curious points in his exposi-
tion of the system of the universe.
As has been said, Buchanan closely follows the
arrangement of Sacrobosco's treatise. The first book
is occupied mainly with an exposition of the nature
and arrangement of the four elements, and of the
rotundity of the earth. Each of the elements , he says ,
1 At least he directly addresses his pupil in the unfinished books.
2 Epist. xv.
3 Epist. xxvii. " Astronomica non tarn abjeci, quam extorqueri
invitus tuli."
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 167
has by its nature a peculiar region of its own, which
it finds by virtue of its relative density. Lowest,
as being heaviest, is earth ; then water, air, fire, all
disposed in spheres, forming successive layers after
the manner of the coats of an onion. That the
earth is anywhere above water is due to the special
providence of God.1 All the elements naturally
tend to the centre ; hence the earth, as the heaviest
of the elements, is necessarily round, and necessarily
forms the centre of the universe. In proving the
rotundity of the earth, Buchanan makes use of the
same arguments and illustrations as Sacrobosco ;
but he is able to add one more cogent than all the
rest, which was not accessible to the thirteenth
century. The earth had been circumnavigated since
Sacrobosco's day. Buchanan seems rather to have
regretted this fact, for the reason that he saw but
one motive in all the maritime enterprise of his
century. Avarice, he thinks, was at the bottom of
it all ; and here he has one of his eloquent digres-
sions which relieve the monotony of the poem.
Where enlightened reason failed, the vilest of
human motives has succeeded :—
Quod ratio longis nisa est extundere seclis,
Ilia oculis hominum ostendit.
The earth, then, is round, and is the immoveable
centre of things. Certain sophists, indeed, with
Pythagoras as their master, had taught that the
earth moves about its own axis. But the absurdity
of such a doctrine is evident to the simplest mind.
What were the speed of birds or of the winds com-
pared with the speed at which the earth would
1 " Singular! Dei providentia effectum est, ut terra aliqua sui parte
aquis extaret, ad tuendam vitam animantium." — Burgersdicius, Sacro-
bosco, p. 9 (edit, 1647).
168 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
have to move to meet the conditions of the case ?
Think, also, of the noise made by a boy's rattle
when whirled round his head, of the noise of a sling,
of the air issuing from a pair of bellows ; and con-
clude what must have been the din of the earth,
with all its mountains, forests, and cities, whirling
round itself, as these sophists taught. Moreover,
if a bird took the shortest flight into the air, where
would its nest be by the time it descended ?
Nee se
Auderet Zephyro solus committere turtur,
Ne procul ablatos terra fugiente Hymenaeos,
Et viduum longo luctu defleret amorem.
Suppose two armies engaged in battle, the missiles
of the one would reach their aim, but what would
happen to the missiles of the other? And then
how could the sea keep its limits ? Must it not
rush madly over the earth's surface, and sweep
before it all the works of man ? On the insignifi-
cance of the earth in the scheme of things, as con-
trasted with the foolish pretensions of men, no
modern could descant more energetically than
Buchanan, as the following lines, which conclude
the first book, will show : —
0 pudor ! o stolidi praeceps vesania voti !
Quantula pars rerum est, in qua se gloria jactat,
Ira frernit, metus exanimat, dolor urit, egestas
Cogit opes ; ferro, insidiis, flamma atque veneno
Cernitur, et trepido fervent humana tumultu.
In his second book, Buchanan expounds the
system of the Sphere by which Ptolemy sought to
explain the motions of the heavenly bodies. Into
this exposition we need not follow him, as he strictly
follows the lines laid down for him by Sacrobosco.
One passage, however, may be quoted, as showing
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 169
what Buchanan thought of Copernicus and his
theory. He has been speaking of the motions of
the heavenly bodies in their respective spheres.
" Although reason," he exclaims, " has clearly
shown all this to be true, yet blind ignorance,
forsooth, immersed in its own darkness, does not
cease to rail aloud, and audaciously to condemn the
heavens to rest, and to transform the sluggish earth
into a swiftly moving body."
In the third book, where he gives an account of
the various artificial contrivances by which men had
sought to simplify the study of the heavens, two
passages deserve special notice — a description of the
Milky Way, and a few lines of reference to the dis-
covery of America. The latter passage is introduced
as a final and conclusive proof that the sun and stars
circle round the earth. " Although," he says, " the
god-like mind of Posidonius had clinched this truth
with sound argument, yet the force of reason and
the weight of his authority carried conviction to but
few, till the fleet of Spain, in search of a path to
shores abounding in glittering gems, and to the
Indian dusky from the nearer sun, revealed the
secrets of the earth, brought forth what had long
been hid in night, and beheld populous lands, where
the sun holds his course through mid-heaven, and
strikes the underlying earth with upright ray,
piercing the soil of rich Taprobane [Ceylon], and
the Brazilian plains — abodes of all delight, where
for every sense Nature pours forth her store : there
the trees, elsewhere barren, of their own accord bear
golden fruits, earth smiles in ever-rich hues, ambrosial
odours exhale from grateful flowers, and the soothing
breeze is quick with the songs of birds." The above
170 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
passage gives an idea of the manner in which
Buchanan relieves the technicalities of his subject.
Of the fourth book Buchanan wrote only about
a hundred lines, though he had doubtless the inten-
tion of making it of the same length as the preceding
three. The fifth book, which is also unfinished,
treats of the eclipses of the sun and moon, with
especial reference to the impostures of astrology.
What Buchanan thought of judicial astrology, as it
was called, does not appear from this poem. In all
probability he was of the same opinion as his friend
filie Vinet, who, in the preface to his edition of
Sacrobosco, remarks that " if one will but apply his
judgment to the question, he will understand that
the department of astronomy known as divination
is as much a part of science as the predictions of
doctors, that are rightly recognised as making part
of medicine ".l Such is the poem on which Buchanan
confidently trusted that his fame must rest secure
against all the assaults of time.
While Buchanan was with de Brissac he wrote a
few short poems, which deserve notice not only for
their intrinsic merit, but also as having the most
direct bearing on his life and opinions. One of
these is his really fine ode addressed to Henry n.
on the capture of Calais by the Duke of Guise in
1558. This ode is one more proof of how completely
Buchanan identified himself with the fortunes of the
French people. He glories in the humiliation of
England, and in the future security of France from
her invasion. Of Mary of England he speaks in the
1 "Siquisadhibebitjudiciuin, intelliget alteram partem artis, divina-
tricem, perinde esse partem physices, sicut medicorum predictiones pars
quaedam physices esse existimantur." — Elie Vinet, Sacrobosco (1540).
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 171
following energetic fashion : " The queen, who knew
not how to endure peace, now mourns the treaties
she held at nought, now dreads the imminent
wrath of God, the scourge of the avenging fury.
The common leech of subjects and enemies, thirsting
equally for the blood of both, she hates and fears
subjects and enemies alike. By day the dread of
war is ever before her ; and a blood-guilty conscience
and ghastly spectres disturb her rest by night.
Thus doth offended justice exact expiation ; thus
doth Nemesis bear down stiff-necked pride; and
thus to the mild and just doth mild and just heaven
lend its aid."
Another poem belonging to this period is among
the best known of Buchanan's productions. This is
his Epithalamium on the marriage of the Dauphin
Francis with Mary of Scotland in 1558. We may
readily believe that this marriage had his most
ardent approval. The idea of an English in pre-
ference to a French alliance, which by this period
had come to commend itself to many of the leading
men in Scotland,1 had certainly not as yet presented
itself to the mind of Buchanan. England was still
for him the " auld enemy", and the only safe policy
for Scotland a more and more intimate union with
France. In this alliance, however, Buchanan stoutly
maintained that France was quite as much a gainer
as Scotland, and that the understanding between
the two countries must be as between two perfectly
equal Powers.
Buchanan's poem has the stamp of genuine
enthusiasm from the first line to the last. Even of
1 Of. Major, De Gest. Scot., Lib. i. cap. 7 : " Dicere ausim Anglum
Scotumque Regibus male suis consulere, si inter eos non semper matri-
monia contrahant, quatenus de utroque regno unum Britanniae regnum
faciant."
172 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
poor Francis himself he has things to say which
seem, odd if perversely construed. But the grave
de l'H6pital, who produced a poem on the same
occasion, leaves Buchanan far behind on this theme.
Having given the bridegroom fuU credit for all
his virtues and for the greatness of his fortunes,
Buchanan reminds him that he has by no means the
worst of the bargain. In his bride he has every
grace of mind and person that he could desire. In
the matter of birth she is the representative of the
most ancient line of sovereigns in the world —
Haec una centum de stirpe nepotes
Sceptriferos numerare potest, haec regia sola est,
Quae bis dena suis includat secula fastis. x
As for dowry, does she not bring a country rich
in all the fruits of the earth, abounding in copper
and lead, whose mountains glitter with gold and
are compact with iron, whose rivers bear down all
manner of precious metals to the sea ? It is, of
course, only the vulgar who look to such things,
and who make light of everything but riches. But
his bride will bring him something more precious
than gold. And here follows his famous panegyric
of the Scottish nation :—
Ilia pharetratis est propria gloria Scotis,2
Cingere venatu saltus, superare natando
Flumina, ferre famem, contemnere frigora et aestus ;
Nee fossa et muris patriam, sed Marte, tueri,
1 As is well known, the Scots not only believed this themselves, but
actually succeeded in persuading other nations to believe it.
2 In illustration of this line, Irving (Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 120)
quotes this sentence: — "Nostra autem aetate [Scotorum] complures cuui
Carolo Francorum rege Italiam invaserunt, qui sub ejus signis militarent :
sunt enim in dirigendis maxime sagittis viri acres atque egregii." —
Crinitus, De Honesta Disciplina. At home the Scots had a strong con-
tempt for the bow as a weapon.
DE 8PHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 173
Et spreta incolumem vita defenders famam ;
Polliciti servare fidem, sanctumque vereri
Nuraen amicitiae, mores, non munus amare.
Artibus his, totum fremerent cum bella per orbem,
Nullaque non leges tellus mutaret avitas
Externo subjecta jugo, gens una vetustis
Sedibus antiqua sub Hbertate resedit.
Substitit hie Gothi furor, hie gravis impetus haesit
Saxonis, hie Cimber superato Saxone, et acri
Perdomito Neuster Cimbro. Si volvere priscos
Non piget annales, hie et victoria fixit
Praecipitem Romana gradum : quern non gravis Auster
Reppulit, incultis non squalens Parthia campis,
Non aestu Meroe, non frigore Rhenus et Albis
Tardavit, Latium remorata est Scotia cursum.
" The glory of the quivered Scots
Is the bold breast and hardy frame
That fear, nor want, nor toil can tame ;
Whose joy is in their native woods
To chase and strike the various game,
And fearless breast their mountain floods ;
Whose good right hands their soil can keep,
Nor need high walls nor fosses deep ;
Who count all gone, if honour 's gone ;
Whose faith can ne'er be bought nor sold ;
Who deem a friend heaven's dearest boon ;
Who barter not their soul for gold.
So was it, when of old each land,
A prey to every spoiler's hand,
Its ancient laws and rulers lost,
The Scot alone could freedom boast !
The Goth, the Saxon, and the Dane
Poured on the Scot their powers in vain ;
And the proud Norman met a foe
Who gave him equal blow for blow.
And I might tell, were not twice-told
The tale, how Rome, whose might controlled
The world beside, was taught to know
That bounds there were she might not pass,
Though never yet had been the foe,
Or man, or nature's direst force,
That e'er had stayed her onward course."
Having thus glorified the valour of the Scots
and their aptitude for war, he reminds the Dauphin
174 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
that their record is no less glorious in the arts of
peace. When the rest of the world was given up
to endless war, it was among the Scots that letters
found a home. When Charlemagne opened his
schools, it was to the Scots he appealed for his
doctors.1 It was in the time of Charlemagne, also,
that the alliance between France and Scotland
was first begun — an alliance which no power had
yet availed to break up.2 Many a time had France
had occasion to be grateful for the friendship of
Scotland. English, Batavians, Spaniards, all had
reason to know what France owed to the prowess
of the Scots. And the poet concludes with the
following prayer : — " Grant me, ye Fates, this length
of days, that I may behold united in soul, subject
to the sway of the brothers of one race, France and
Scotland, knit already through so many ages by
mutual service, by leagues, and solemn compact-
that I may behold as one people joined in concord,
enduring as the lights of heaven, those whom the
sea keeps apart by its waves, earth and sky by far-
stretching space." When we remember what the
next quarter of the century was to bring forth for
Scotland and France alike, we must find all the
irony and pathos of life in this prayer of Buchanan.
Before many years, he was led to think that the
alliance of France would be for Scotland the most
disastrous event that could befall her. And, as it
happened, at the very moment he wrote these lines
1 As is well known, the Scots made unjust capital out of the confu-
sion between Scotland and Ireland. Mr. Hill Burton has some interest-
ing remarks on the subject in his Scot Abroad, vol. ii. Boece tells us that
Paris University began to flourish " by the industry of two Scotsmen".
2 This alliance with Charlemagne made part of the mythical history
of Scotland, as accepted in Buchanan's day.
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 175
it had come to pass in the inevitable process of
things that the respective paths of France and
Scotland were henceforth to be wide as the poles
apart.
It is interesting to compare this poem of
Buchanan with that of de l'H6pital, afterwards
Chancellor of France, which was produced on the
same occasion. L'Hopital's verses are bald and
awkward compared with Buchanan's, and the spirit
in which they were written is much more suggestive
of the statesman than the poet. We learn from
him what, indeed, we know from other sources,
that the Scottish marriage was regarded by many
in France as seriously compromising the dignity of
the French Crown —
Nainque maligne
Quidam homines etiam haec vulgo connubia rodunt.
On grounds of policy, however, de 1'Hopital strongly
approves of the alliance. Mary, he reminds those
who opposed the match, brings a kingdom as her
dowry — a kingdom petty indeed compared with
France, yet one which at many a lamentable crisis
had brought saving aid to France. So populous
a country is Scotland that she is able at once to
send an invading army into England and an auxili-
ary army into France. If France should reject
this union, England may accept it ; and what
would be the fate of France if she had to contend
with Scotland and England both ? Moreover, it
would be highly impolitic to give such mortal
offence to the Scottish Queen. Married to some
other prince, she would make it the aim of her life
to repay the insult with interest. Everything con-
sidered, therefore, FHopital is of opinion that the
176 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Scottish alliance is the wisest policy for France ; and
he concludes his poem in a fashion which contrasts
oddly with the enthusiastic prayer of Buchanan.
" By me, his bard," he says, " Apollo predicts these
happy results (that will flow from this union). My
posterity, as I trust, will say — if, indeed, my strains
but live so long — 'Long since our ancestor sang
that these things would be, when the majority of
men said they would never come to pass '."
In less than three years Buchanan saw the ruin
of all the hopes that had been founded on the alliance
he had celebrated with such enthusiasm. Francis
died in December 1560, on the eve of the religious
wars that were to devastate France for the
remainder of the century. On this occasion, also,
Buchanan wrote a poem ; and perhaps, among all
his productions, there is not one where he mounts
to a higher strain of impressive dignity. The poem
is entitled A Lamentation on the State of Affairs
on the Death of King Francis II. It is curious to
note that the poem does not contain a single refer-
ence to the bereavement of Mary. The loss of its
king to the French nation at one of the most fateful
moments of its history, its humiliations abroad, its
dissensions at home — these are the themes on which
he now speaks in tones that remove the poem quite
out of the category of mere conventional effusions.
In the light of what befell France in the years
immediately succeeding the death of the young
King, the following personification of Discord has a
terrible significance. It is to be remembered that
in less than two years after these lines were
written the Huguenot Wars began. " Discord,
steeped to the lips in foulest venom, meditates
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 177
crimes more monstrous than all the rest. From
their silent seats she summons to upper air her
infernal sisters, and plants in men's minds the seeds
of rage and hate. The thoughts of the chiefs of the
people she turns to selfish aims, nor permits them
to lay to heart the common weal." The last line of
this poem, though it is a touch in perfect keeping
with the age, has a somewhat grotesque effect on
the modern reader. Having besought Heaven to
avert further evils from France, the poet concludes
with the request that Heaven may be pleased to let
loose these same evils on the Turks !
Though we have no reason to suppose that it
belongs to this period, we give a place here to
another poem of Buchanan's, which affords the most
conclusive proof, if any were needed, that poetry
was indeed his natural language. This is his poem
entitled Calendae Maiae. Of its poetic value we
have fortunately the opinion of Wordsworth himself.
The subject of the poem, it may be said, is one on
which Wordsworth speaks with all his authority.
" I think (he says, writing to the nephew who be-
came his biographer) Buchanan's Calendae Maiae
equal in sentiment, if not in elegance, to anything
in Horace ; but your brother Charles, to whom I
repeated it the other day, pointed out a false
quantity in it. Happily this had escaped me."
1 Life of Wordsworth, by Christopher Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 466.
The following note is attached to the above passage : " If I remember
right, it is the line
' Ludisque dlcatae, jocisque ',
a strange blunder, for .Buchanan must have read Horace's ' Quid
dedicatum poscit Apollinem ' a hundred times. " False quantities are
not uncommon with the best scholars of Buchanan's century. Mr.
Christie notes that Saumaise points out false quantities in Milton's
Latin poetry. Even in Gray Mr. Christie finds similar lapses.— Life of
Etienne Dolet, p. 479.
M
178 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Some readers may think that Wordsworth's praise
might well have been more emphatic, and that
Buchanan's ode, by its true poetic quality, is worthy
of Horace when he transcends himself.
CALENDAE MAIAE.
Salvete sacris deliciis sacrae
Maiae Calendae, laetitiae, et mero,
Ludisque dicatae, jocisque,
Et teneris Charitum choreis.
Salve voluptas, et nitiduni decus
Anni recurrens perpetua vice,
Et flos renascentis juventae
In senium properantis aevi.
Cum blanda veris temperies novo
Illuxit orbi, primaque secula
Fulsere flaventi metallo
Sponte sua sine lege justa :
Talis per omnes continuus tenor
Annos tepenti rura Favonio
Mulcebat, et nullis feraces
Seminibus recreabat agros.
Talis beatis incubat insulis
Felicis aurae perpetuus tepor,
Et nesciis campis senectae
DiflBcilis, querulique morbi.
Talis silentum per taciturn nemus
Levi susurrat rnurmure spiritus,
Lethenque juxta obliviosam
Funereas agitat cupressos.
Forsan supremis cum Deus ignibu
Piabit orbem, laetaque secula
Mundo reducet, talis aura
Aethereos animos fovebit.
Salve fugacis gloria seculi,
Salve secunda digna dies nota,
Salve vetustae vitae imago,
Et specimen venientis aevi.
THE FIRST OF MAY.
Hail ! sweetest day,
Day of all pure delight ;
Whose gracious hours invite
DE SPHAERA AND OTHER POEMS. 179
To mirth and song and dance,
And wine, and love's soft glance.
Welcome ! with all thy bright hours bring
Of quickened life and beauty's dower —
The certain heritage of spring.
In thee each year doth hoary time
Renew the glories of his prime !
When, still rejoicing in her birth,
Spring brightened all the new-made earth,
And in that happy golden age
Men knew no lawless passion's rage,
Thy train of joys embraced the year ;
Soft breezes wooed the untilled field
Its blessings all unforced to yield.
Even in such mildest atmosphere
For ever bask those happy isles,
Those blessed plains, that never know
Life's slow decay, or poisoned flow.
Thus 'mid the still abodes of death
Should steal the soft air's softest breath,
And gently stir the solemn wood
That glooms o'er Lethe's dreamless flood.
And, haply, when made pure of stain
By cleansing fire, the earth renewed
Shall know her ancient joys again,
Even such mild air shall o'er her brood !
Thou crown of the world's failing age,
Of life's sad book one happy page,
Hail ! sweetest day — memorial bright
Of early innocent delight.
And sure pledge of the coming day
When it shall be eternal May.
CHAPTEE XIII.
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT.
1561-1567.
THE first notice we have of Buchanan after his
return to his native country is in a letter of Ran-
dolph, the English resident at the Scottish Court,
to Cecil, the minister of Elizabeth. The letter is
dated Edinburgh, 30th January 1561-2: "Ther
is with the quene one called Mr. George Bowhanan,
a Scottishe man, verie well lerned, that was the
schollemaster unto Monsr. de Brisack's sone, very
godlye and honest." On the 7th of April, also,
Randolph wrote from St. Andrews : " The queen
readeth daily after her dinner, instructed by a
learned man Mr. George Bowhannan, somewhat of
Lyvie." Randolph came to be better acquainted
with Buchanan, and to esteem the acquaintance a
privilege ; l and it is him we have, in all likelihood,
to thank for the Latin sketch of Buchanan's life
which has formed the basis of all his biographies.
In the following year we find another notice,
which indicates that Buchanan had other employ-
ment besides reading with Mary. In the Register
of the Privy Council there is an entry, under
date 6th February 1562-3, to the effect that
Buchanan, along with another, had been appointed
1 Randolph had been a pupil of Buchanan in Paris.
180
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 181
" to interpreit the writtis producit in proces writtin
in Spainis langage fiirth of the same in Franche,
Latyne, or Inglis, that the Quenis grace and Coun-
sale mycht thaireftir understand the samyn ".
From all that we have seen of Buchanan up
to this point it may readily be believed that his
feeling towards Mary must have been very differ-
ent from that of Knox, who saw in her simply
the victim of the most terrible of all delusions, and
the most formidable of all obstacles in the way
of national salvation. Buchanan had joined the
Church of Knox on his return to Scotland ; but his
whole manner of life till then, his varied experience
of men and things, the free play of thought and
feeling that came to him from his humanistic train-
ing, would enable him easily to bridge the differ-
ence of religious faith, and fully to appreciate the
grace and quickness of mind that distinguished
Mary above most women of her time. On the other
hand, Mary must have found in Buchanan what she
could hardly have found in any other of her sub-
jects. A peculiar bond between them must have
been their common love and common memories of
France. " Mary," says Sir James Melville, " was
somewhat sad when solitary ; and was glad of the
company of such as had travelled to other king-
doms." It would appear, moreover, that Buchanan
was not altogether wanting in the qualifications
that make men acceptable at Courts. There is a
certain discrepancy in the portraits of him that
have come down to us ; but from descriptions of
him by different observers we can form a sufficiently
distinct notion of how he looked and bore himself.
In all his portraits he appears with strongly marked
182 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
features, the forehead of the same dome -like shape
as Scott's, and the mouth and chin indicative of
strength and individuality. His usual expression
was grave even to severity. He had a slight stoop
as he walked, and his general appearance was
homely and rustic.1 In his latter years, at least,
he appears to have been careless in the matter of
dress, as the following curious reference to him
shows : " The dowblet ye caust mak to Duncane is
now vp at the slot of his hreist. Ye wald say
that he wearis his belt as men sayis Mr. George
Buchanan did weare his, the dowblet is growen so
schort." 2 But while his outward man was thus so
uncourtier-like, his manners and style of speech
were those of one familiar with the most polished
society. Ronsard, on such a question the best of
judges, was in the habit of saying that Buchanan,
Turnebe, Muret, and Gouvea had nothing of the
pedant about them but the cap and gown.3 And
Sir James Melville, who had himself seen more of
the world than most Scotsmen of his time, says that
Buchanan was " pleasant in conversation, rehearsing
at all occasion moralities short and instructive,
whereof he had abundance, inventing where he
wanted ".4 According to the witness quoted below,
also, he had " the air and speech of a finished man
1 " Erat austero supercilio, et toto corporis habitu imo moribus hie
noster subagrestis ; sed stylo et sermone perurbanus, quuin saepissime,
vel in seriis, multo cum sale jocaretur. Denique vir quern inirari
facilius quam digne praedicare possis." — David Buchanan, De Scriptori-
bus Scotis Illustribus. (Quoted by Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan,
p. 314.)
2 From a letter written in 1619 by Mr. W. Bowie, tutor to the sons
of Glenfalloch. (Given in Cosmo Innes's Sketches of Early Scotch
History, Appendix, pp. 521, 522.)
3 De Thou, Histoire Universelle, vol. viii. p. 665.
4 Melville, Memoirs, p. 250 (ed. Edin. 1735).
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 183
of the world, being in the habit of lighting up even
his most serious conversation by humorous sallies ".
With such a man, though he had now passed his
fiftieth year, we may be sure that Mary, keen-witted
as she was and delighting in originality of character,
would not confine her intercourse to the letter of
Livy. Both, as we know, in their own manner,
were noted for a certain hardiness of speech ; and
we may fancy that there would be many a trial of
wits between the old scholar and his brilliant pupil.
With the possible exception of her secretary, Mait-
land, there was no man hi Scotland whose conversa-
tion could have been more piquant and refreshing
to Mary.
The reading of Livy must have been but inter-
mittent, since during the four years before her
marriage with Darnley, Mary visited almost every
corner of her dominions. As St. Andrews, however,
came to be Buchanan's chief residence, he would
be frequently brought into contact with the Court,
Mary much preferring that town to Edinburgh.
That he was on excellent terms, both with the
Queen and the ladies who attended on her, is
proved by various epigrams, whose tone implies at
once the privilege of age and easy intercourse. To
Mary Fleming and Mary Beaton he has addressed
eight such epigrams, all written in a spirit of mock
gallantry, which proves that in spite of his failing
health and his new theological bent he still retained
something of the old leaven of humanism. To Mary
herself he addressed one of the best known and
most admired of all his shorter poems — the charm-
ing epigram in which he dedicates to her his para-
phrase of the Psalms. The second edition of this
184 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
paraphrase, as has already been said, was published
by Henri Estienne at Paris in 1566;1 and it was
doubtless mainly with the intention of superintend-
ing its publication that Buchanan about that date
paid a short visit to France.2 Although the poem
referred to has been many times quoted, it cannot
but have a place in every biography of Buchanan : —
Nympha, Caledoniae quae nunc feliciter orae
Missa per innurneros sceptra tueris avos ;
Quae sortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annos,
Sexurn animis, morum nobilitate genus,
Accipe (sed facilis) cultu donata Latino
Carmina, fatidici nobile regis opus.
Ilia quidem Cirrha procul et Permesside lympha
Pene sub Arctoi sidere nata poll :
Non tamen ausus eram male natutn exponere foetum,
Ne mihi displiceant quae placuere tibi.
Nam quod ab ingenio domini sperare nequibant,
Debebunt genio forsitan ilia tuo.
" 0 daughter of a hundred kings
That boldest 'neath thy happy sway
This ancient realm of Caledon ;
Whose worth outstrips thy destiny ;
Whose mind thy sex ; whose grace thy peers ;
Whose virtues leave behind thy years —
Behold in Roman garb I bring
The work of Israel's prophet-King.
Rude is my song as born afar
From the Muse-haunted founts of Greece,
Under the frigid Northern star ;
And but that aught that pleases thee
Must ne'er displeasing seem to me,
It had not looked on eyes save mine ;
Yet such a virtue flows from thine,
Perchance my sorry child may own
Some graces that are thine alone ! "
1 It should be said that the date of the first edition, also from the
press of Stephens, is not known. This edition bears no date.
2 That Buchanan visited France at this time is proved by a letter of
Daniel Rogers, given in Ruddiman's general introduction to Buchanan's
Works ; by Epist. i. in Ruddiman's edition ; and, lastly, by a letter of
Randolph to the Earl of Leicester, January 29th, 1567.
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 185
During the first years after his return to Scot-
land, Buchanan seems to have held no fixed appoint-
ment, though from his close connection with the
Court, and the frequent demands the Queen made
on his poetical powers, we may regard him as in
some measure fulfilling the function of a poet-
laureate. On three several occasions he wrote short
Latin masques for the Court — on the return of Mary
from France, on her marriage with Darnley, and on
the baptism of her son James.1 On behalf of Mary
herself he also wrote complimentary verses to
Elizabeth, which in the light of the subsequent
relations of all three now read strangely enough.
Thus Mary, sending Elizabeth a heart cut in a
diamond, accompanies her present with these lines
expressly written by Buchanan : —
Quod te jampridem fruitur, videt, ac amat absens,
Haec pignus cordis gemma, et imago mei est.
Non est candidior, non est haec purior illo,
Quamvis dura magis, non mage firma tamen.
" The pledge and image of a heart
Whose constant joy and pride thou art —
This gem is not more fair, more pure,
Nor, though more hard, will more endure."
As is well known, such a position in connection
with Courts was common enough with scholars
during the sixteenth century. In the enthusiasm
for the new studies, it came to be the fashion with
princes and other great persons to have attached to
them some scholar or scholars, who should make
part of the adornment of their Court. The mere
presence of the scholar and his occasional services
on State occasions of business or pleasure were sup-
posed to deserve both honour and remuneration.
1 For the manner in which these masques were represented see Joseph
Robertson's Inventories of Queen Mary.
186 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
As scholars were not over-abundant in Scotland,
and Buchanan was in simple truth the most cele-
brated then living in the British Islands, we may
believe that Mary, who was not without a genuine
interest in literature, was perfectly aware that a
subject of Buchanan's distinction lent a certain
lustre to her Court.
For Buchanan's general services we learn from two
entries in the Treasurer's Accounts for 1562 that he
received an annual pension of 250 pounds Scots.1
As throwing light on the relative value of this
amount, it may be mentioned that a few weeks
before his murder Blzzio received from Mary and
Darnley 200 pounds " for the reparatiounis of his
chalmer",2 and that the authors of the Book of
Discipline fixed 200 pounds as the annual salaries of
the principals of colleges. From the cases of Hector
Boece and the poet Dunbar we gather that it was
customary to grant such conditional pensions,
pending the promotion of the recipient to some
benefice.3 It would seem that this pension of 250
pounds did not suffice to meet even the modest
wants of a celibate scholar. It is certain, at least,
that, during all his years in Scotland, Buchanan
was constantly in straits for money. Both before
and after the dethronement of Mary we have
sundry begging epigrams which sufficiently indicate
the state of his purse ; and the condition of
his affairs at his death is one of the common-
places of literary history. What this chronic state
of neediness may imply it is difficult to say. In
1 " Item to Maister George Buchquhannane for his pensioun of the
said [Whitsunday] terme [1562] jc xxv li."
2 Robertson, Inventories of Queen Mary, p. xci.
3 Laing, Introduction to Dunbar's Poems, p. 30.
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 187
the case of Erasmus, we have the same constant
appeals (though in much less dignified fashion than
Buchanan's) for pecuniary assistance ; but Erasmus
was a person of far more luxurious habits than
Buchanan could ever have been. It may be, how-
ever, that Buchanan had all the proverbial inca-
pacity of poets for domestic accounts ; and we have
it on the authority of Joseph Scaliger that he was
a despiser of riches.1 At all events, he came to
hold appointments whose emoluments should have
been amply sufficient to meet the wants of a scholar
who, like Buchanan, was "something of a Stoick
philosopher ". Yet it is to be remembered that in
this chaotic period of Scottish history the promise
to pay by no means implied its fulfilment. In the
scramble for wealth that followed the ruin of the
old Church, and accompanied the incessant changes
in the management of public affairs, the strongest
and most unscrupulous laid hands on all the prizes,
and diverted the public funds from their proper
channels. Of this we have a signal example in the
case of one particular gift of Mary to Buchanan,
and it may be taken as an illustration of the pre-
carious nature of the incomes of those peaceful
persons who depended on grants from the State.
Among the rich spoils of the old Church was
the famous Abbey of Crossraguel in Ayrshire, which
for forty years before the Reformation had enjoyed
the immediate protection of the Earls of Cassillis.2
1 In his epitaph on Buchanan, already quoted, he says : —
" Contemptis opibus, spretis populations auris,
Ventosaeque fugax ambitionis, obis."
2 For what follows regarding Buchanan's relations to Crossraguel, I
am indebted to the Charters of the Abbey of Crossraguel, printed for the
Ayrshire and Galloway Archaeological Association, Edin. 1886. It
188 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Its valuation, as rendered in accordance with a
decree of the Privy Council in 1561, was £409, 13s.
4d. per annum. On the 9th October 1564, Mary
conferred on Buchanan, under a gift of Privy Seal,
a pension of 500 pounds Scots from the lands of this
Abbey, together with the whole temporality of the
Abbey as well as the monastic buildings. It was
added in the terms of the gift, " gif the samyn sail
not be fundin sufficient and eneuch for zeirlie payment
of the said sum of fyve hundred poundis, in that case
her majesty assynis to him [Buchanan] sa mekle
as he sail lack of the said temporalitie of the
readiest teyndis and fruitis of the spiritualitie of
the said Abbaye, viz., of the Kirkis of Govane and
Kirkoswald belangand thairto". It thus seemed
that, by the generosity of Mary, Buchanan's in-
terests were thenceforth safe. As the sequel shows,
however, the gift proved one of doubtful felicity.
Before the month was out in which the gift was
granted, we find an order of the Privy Council bear-
ing that Mr. George Buchanan had complained to
them that the Earl of Cassillis (the son of Buchan-
an's former pupil) had entered within the Abbey of
Crossraguel since the decease of Abbot Quentin,
and would not deliver it to Mr. George Buchanan ;
therefore the Lords of Council ordain letters charg-
ing the Earl of Cassillis to deliver the same to the
said Mr. George within six days, under pain of
horning. The following year, 19th July 1565, the
Abbacy was gifted by Mary to Allan Stewart, laird
of Cardonald, and in February 1566-7 the Earl of
may be said that till the publication of these charters Buchanan's exact
debt to Mary, as " pensionary " of Crossraguel, had never been accurately
stated. It is to be remembered that Buchanan's other pension ceased on
the gift of Crossraguel.
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 189
Cassillis obtained a lease of the same Abbacy from
Mary and Darnley, free from all rent. Thus, count-
ing the Abbot who had sujjpeeded Quintin Kennedy,
there were no fewer than four persons interested in
the Abbacy. Accordingly, though Buchanan styled
himself " Pensionarius de Crossraguel ", the pension
was by no means always forthcoming. In April
1568 he disposed of it to Allan Stewart for the
yearly payment of 500 pounds ; and in the following
January he assigned it to Cassillis, complaining
that it had been " restand owand " to him for
several years past. By this assignation the Earl
agreed to pay to Buchanan the sum of 980 marks.
On the way in which Cassillis kept his bargain we
have a significant commentary in a letter addressed
to him by the Earl of Mar so late as the 5th July
1572. In this letter Mar begs him to "remember
Maister George Buchannan, and to bring with
you sumquhat for his satisfaction of his pension ".
Finally, in 1573, Buchanan sold his pension to the
laird of Bargany for the annual sum of 400 pounds.
Whether Bargany met his claim more satisfactorily
than Cassillis is not recorded.
As illustrating the easy terms on which Buchan-
an must have stood with Mary, and as showing at
the same time the impecuniosity of which we have
spoken, the following two epigrams may be taken
as examples. The lines are supposed to be accom-
panied by copies of verses : —
AD MARIAM SCOTIAE REGINAM.
Do quod adest : opto quod abest tibi : dona darentur
Aurea, sors animo si foret aequa meo.
Hoc leve si credis, paribus me ulciscere donis :
Et quod abest, opta tu mihi : da quod adest.
190 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
" I give you what I have,
I wish you what you lack ;
And weightier were my gift
Were fortune at my back.
Perchance you think I jest ?
A like jest then I crave :
Wish for me what I lack,
And give me what you have."
AD EANDEM.
Invida ne veterem tollant oblivia morem,
Haec tibi pro xenio carmina pauca damns
Sunt mala ; sed si vis, poterunt divina videri ;
Nam nunc quod magno venditur sere bonum est.
" A good old custom should not cease ;
Receive these songs, then, as of old.
Poor stuff ? But good or bad is now
Just what things fetch in weight of gold."
While Buchanan was on this excellent footing
with Mary, he nevertheless distinctly showed on
what side his sympathies lay on the questions at
issue between her and the Protestant party. From
1563 he sat for four successive years as a member of
the General Assembly of the Reformed Church. In
1563 he was one of the Commissioners appointed
to revise the Book of Discipline. In 1564, along
with Knox and others, he made one of the Com-
mitee " to confer about the causes appertaining to
the 'jurisdiction of the Kirk, and to report their
judgment to the next convention". In 1565, he
and five others " were ordained to convene and sit
from six till eight in the morning, to decide ques-
tions propounded or to be propounded, and to report
their decision to the Assembly"; and in 1566 he
made one of a similar commission. It is well
known that Mary's special aversion was the General
Assembly, at which her government was discussed
with a frankness that must have contrasted pain-
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 191
fully with the subservience of French parliaments.
That Buchanan, therefore, could thus take such a
prominent part in these assemblies, and yet remain
in friendly understanding with Mary, is conclusive
proof that he stood on an entirely different footing in
the country from Knox and the ministers of the Con-
gregation. They were reformers, and nothing else.
Buchanan approved of the same cause ; but he had
other interests, and the memory of a life behind him
which made genial intercourse possible with those
who differed most widely from himself on the
deepest questions.
That Buchanan was also on intimate relations
with Mary's brother, the Earl of Moray, is proved by
several circumstances. To him, also, he addresses
begging epigrams in the same tone of mingled
respect and familiarity with which he addresses
Mary. In all probability it is to some period before
1567 that these epigrams are to be referred.
AD JACOBUM MOKAVIAE COMITEM.
Si magis est, ut Christus ait, donare beatum,
Quain de munifica dona referre manu :
Aspice quam foveain tibi : sis ut dando beatus,
Non renuo fieri, te tribuente, miser.
" It is more blest, saith Holy Writ,
To give than to receive ;
How great, then, is your debt to me,
Who take whate'er you give ! "
AD EUNDEM.
Sera, Jacobe, quidem sunt, parvaque munera nostra :
Hac in re vitium si quod inesse putas,
Ne sectare meam, sed contra corrige culpam,
Et cito, sed larga munera redde manu.
" Niggard and laggard came my gift, you say,
Then must I deem your duty clear indeed ;
By good example this my fault amend :
Let thy gift come with bounty and with speed."
192 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
To Moray, also, he dedicated his Franciscanus
in its completed form, and in terms which prove
that he shared with the Protestant leaders their
admiration of him. Having described the origin of
the satire, and the persecution to which it had
subjected him, he proceeds : " At length, after
twenty -four1 years of exile, when, by the consent
of the Scottish nobility, the tyranny of the friars
had been suppressed, I began to retouch my Satire,
undertaken at the command of the King, and inter-
rupted by the vicissitudes of public affairs, and the
untowardness of my own. As soon as my cir-
cumstances permitted me to complete it, I deter-
mined to give it to the world under your name in
preference to that of any one else, as the one man
who above all others has done most to clear the
country of these monsters — a work you performed
with such vigour that you have made simple reality
of those fables which the Greeks, the most ingenious
and instructed of peoples, relate of Hercules in the
wildest flights of their fancy. Moreover, by your
notable virtue, you have so effectually restored
simple primitive religion, that, now the seeming im-
possibility has been accomplished, our delight is not
less than our admiration. Let me add that it
seemed to me but just that the debt I left unpaid
to your father, I should, though somewhat late in
the day, make good to the son who walks so heed-
fully in that father's steps ; and this I trust I have
now done in such wise that the years will seem to
you to have brought a goodly interest." In 1566,
Moray acknowledged Buchanan's attentions by
appointing him to a post for which his training
1 This statement is chronologically not quite accurate.
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 193
peculiarly fitted him. As Commendator of the
Priory of St. Andrews, Moray had the right of
nominating to the principalship of the College of
St. Leonard ; and a vacancy occurring in that year,
he appointed Buchanan.1 Of Buchanan's relations
with St. Andrews University an account will be
given in another place.
Till the murder of Darnley in 1567 Buchanan
continued on the same friendly footing with Mary
and the Protestant party alike. That he did not
take the same view of the Darnley marriage as
Moray and Knox is conclusively proved by the
poems he wrote in its celebration, as well as by
some lines he has addressed to Darnley himself.
The objection of Moray and Knox to the mar-
riage was that it threatened the newly established
religion. Buchanan would certainly have con-
sidered it a national misfortune had the old religion
been restored ; yet it cannot be said of him, as of
Knox, that he lived and moved in the questions that
divided the two Churches. Moreover, there was a
reason, which must have had a weight of its own in
determining the view he took of Mary's second
marriage. Darnley was the son of the head of the
clan of Lennox, and in his exaltation to the throne
Buchanan would see the glorification of the clan to
which he himself belonged. Buchanan would have
been no good Scotsman had he not been susceptible
to such feelings, and Buchanan was a Scotsman
to the core. Of the Court poem he wrote on the
occasion it would be easy to make too much. Such
poems of the Latinists of the sixteenth century
are as purely official as the dresses and decora-
1 Sibbaldi Comment, in Vitam Buchanani, p. 65.
N
194 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
tions made to order by the Court tradesmen.1 In
the poem, however, which he addressed to Darnley
himself, it may be supposed that he gave expres-
sion to his desires if not to his convictions. It
was written in January 1566 or 1567 ; if in the
latter year, the prayer with which it concludes
received a terrible commentary a month later in
the tragedy of the Kirk of Field. All men,
says Buchanan, pour forth their own prayers at
the beginning of a new year. The farmer implores
a good harvest, the soldier active service, the mer-
chant peace. Some pray for riches, some for power,
some for glory. For his [Buchanan's] part, he has
but one boon to ask of Heaven — that Darnley may
be preserved. "With thy safety," he concludes,
" all happiness must follow to thy kingdom." 2 The
prayer is a singular one, as we now estimate
Darnley ; but in his History also Buchanan has no
hard words to say of him, though he, nowhere seeks
to credit him with virtues he did not possess.
Such being Buchanan's attitude towards the
marriage of Mary and Darnley, and his general
relations with the Court, it must be considered
as a singular testimony to his estimation in the
country that Knox, then at the height of his
antagonism to Mary, could in 1566 write the follow-
ing sentence : " That notable man, Mr. George
Bucquhanane, remains to this day in the year of
God 1566 years, to the glory of God, to the great
1 This fact cannot be too strongly insisted on with reference to the
Latin poets of the sixteenth century. Even Mr. Joseph Kobertson (In-
ventories of Queen Mary, xxxvi) takes Buchanan's lines on Darnley quite
seriously.
. . . quoniam te sospite nobis
Succedent regno prospera cuncta tuo.
SCOTLAND — RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 195
honour of the nation, and to the comfort of them
that delyt in letters and virtue." 1 As Knox could
not have been ignorant of Buchanan's close con-
nection with the Court since his return to Scot-
land, the sentence just quoted clearly proves that
Buchanan's position in the country was peculiar to
himself — that a liberty of thought and action was
allowed him which the extreme representatives of
either party in the State would have allowed to no
other. The most detestable of all things in the
eyes of Knox was a lukewarm professor. We may
be sure, therefore, that had there been the faintest
suggestion of trimming on the part of Buchanan the
above sentence would never have been written.
The last occasion on which we find Buchanan in
friendly relations with Mary was on the baptism of
James vi. in December 1566. As poet-laureate of
the Court, he wrote the masque played at the
supper that followed the celebration of the cere-
mony. This is a singularly jejune performance,
consisting only of some sixty lines, made up of the
speeches of bands of satyrs, nereids, naiads, fauns, and
oreads. In succession they approach the young king
and his mother, and offer their homage in the strain
of high-flown flattery then used towards princes.
As the piece, however, would afford ample scope
for all manner of fantastic dresses, it doubtless very
well served the purpose for which it was produced.2
1 Knox, History of the Reformation.
- Mr. Joseph Robertson (Inventories of Queen Mary, Ixxxvi) gives
the following account of the performance of this masque of Buchanan :
" The masque for the grand banquet at the Prince's baptism at Stirling
in December 1566, was arranged, it would seem, by Buchanan, who
supplied the Latin verses, and by Bastien Pagez, a French valet of the
Queen's chamber, who devised the machinery. When the dishes were
to be brought in, they were placed upon a table so constructed, that it
196 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
It may be deemed significant that the father of
the young prince is not once mentioned by any of
the speakers. The omission may, of course, mean
nothing more than that Darnley did not take rank
with the mother and son ; yet though Buchanan,
as principal of St. Leonard's, was not a resident at
Court, he must have heard of the strained relations
between Mary and her husband. Buchanan after-
wards learned and related in his History that
Darnley was actually in Stirling Castle at the time,
and yet was not present at the ceremony of his
son's baptism.
But the most noteworthy of all Buchanan's pro-
ductions addressed to Mary before the tragedy of
the Kirk of Field is the poem he wrote on the birth
of James vi. in 1566. Nominally addressed to the
infant prince, it is clearly for Mary's eyes it is
meant ; and if we are to judge fairly of Buchanan's
subsequent feelings towards her, this poem must
seemed to move through the great hall of its own accord, accompanied
by musicians in female attire, singing songs, and playing upon instru-
ments. A procession of Rural Gods marched before, each groupe as it
passed the dais reciting a few lines of Latin. The Satyrs, the Naiads,
and the Oreads, addressed the Prince ; the Nereids and the Fauns
turned their speech to the Queen :
' Virtute, ingenio, Regina, et munere formae
Felicibus felicior majoribus,
Conjugii fructu sed felicissima, cujus,
Legati honorant exteri cunabula :
Rustica quern donis reverentur Nuniina, silvis
Satyri relictis, Najadesque fontibus.'
The Satyrs, as we learn from an eye-witness, not content with playing
the part assigned to them, chose to wag their long tails, in the hope, no
doubt, of creating a laugh among their companions in the hall. But the
retainers of the English ambassador fancying that it was done in their
derision (there must have been Kentishmen among them), were so
incensed that the Queen and the ambassador had difficulty in appeasing
their wrath. The masque, thus interrupted, was followed by a dis-
charge of fireworks from a mimic fortress, the possession of which was
contested by motley bands of Moors, Highlanders, Centaurs, Lanz-
knechts, and Fiends."
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 197
be read in connection with the terrible Detectio.
From this poem it distinctly appears that Buchanan
made no secret from Mary of his opinions as to
the true relations in which the prince stands to
his people. It is as distinctly implied here as
in the Baptistes and the De Jure Regni that kings
exist by the will and for the good of the people ;
and in the concluding lines he hints neither more
nor less directly than in the De Jure Regni that the
death of tyrants is well-pleasing in the sight of God
— an opinion, indeed, which Buchanan shared with
Erasmus and many of the most eminent humanists.
In certain of its passages, also, it is impossible not
to see that a delicate animadversion is implied both
on Mary's private conduct and her private policy.
In short, Buchanan's subsequent attitude towards
Mary is distinctly implied in this poem ; and the
tragic events of the next few months were alone
needed to convert a delicate rebuke into the fierce
denunciation of the Detectio.
The opening lines of the poem admirably show
what hopes Buchanan, with all patriotic Scotsmen,
based on the birth of James. For all such it was
the most auspicious event that could have happened
to Scotland, as they saw in it the surest promise
of that peaceful and honourable union with England
which every year showed to be more absolutely
necessary. " Grow and be strong, long-wished-for
boy, happy pledge for thy country's weal, to whom
ancient bards have promised the peaceful glories of
the golden age. And thou, happy Britain, joyfully
lift up thy head, thou so often stricken by foreign
foes, so often on ruin's brink from the swords of thy
own children ; bind thy hair with olive, and repair
198 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
thy ruined homes, for the stars now promise thee
eternal peace. Now Saxon oppresseth not Scot, nor
Scot Saxon, nor stain their swords with the blood of
their kindred, nor make the cities of the other their
prey. They whose delight was mutual war now
join right hands in peace. And ye, happy parents
of this happy child, train him from his tenderest
years to virtue and justice. Let piety be his com-
panion from the cradle, moulding his thoughts and
growing with his years ! " As the ship answers the
helm, the poet proceeds, so the people direct their
steps by the example of their prince. Prisons, and
harsh laws, the threats of death, fill a people with
terror ; but true virtue in their king and reverence
for authority are of more avail to win them to good.
What the sword cannot compel, love will gladly yield.
The people vie with their prince in mutual service,
love when they see they are loved, and obey as their
lord him whom they may freely obey. If the prince
but relax the reins, of their own accord the people
draw them tight, and the yoke they reject when
thrust on them, if left to themselves they demand.
On the other hand, the true king and father of his
people imposes no laws which he himself is not
willing to obey. In food, and dress, and lodging he
sets the example of moderation. In love, also, he
is chastity itself. Who would wear silk, if the
prince were content with wool ? Who would find
fault with the marriage-law if the ruler were the
first to submit to it ? Who would be intemperate,
if the king were not ? But the concluding lines
of the poem must be given in Buchanan's own
words, as they may be regarded as a brief summary
of the teaching of the De Jure Regni : —
SCOTLAND RELATIONS WITH THE COURT. 199
Scilicet humano generi natura benigni
Nil dedit, aut tribuet moderate Principe majus,
In quo vera Dei vivensque elucet imago.
Hanc seu Rex vitiis contaminet ipse pudendis,
Sive alius ferro violet vel fraude, severas
Sacrilege Deus ipse petet de sanguine poenas,
Contemtumque sui simulacri baud linquet inultum.
Sic Nero crudelis, sic Flavius ultimus, et qui
Imperio Siculas urbes tenuere cruento,
Effigiem foedare Dei exitialibus ausi
Flagitiis, ipsa periere a stirpe recisi.
Sic qui se justi macularunt sanguine Servi,
Et qui legitimos ferro flammaque petivit
Rectores patriae Catilina nefarius, acti
In furias misero vix tandem funere vitam
Invisam posuere, ignominiaque perenni
Foedavere suam ventura in secula gentem.
" In good sooth, nature hath never given and
never will give a greater boon to man than a prince
who is moderate in all things, in whom shines the
true and living image of God. Whether the King
himself defile this image by his own vice, or another
violate it by force or fraud, God Himself will exact
stern punishment for the sacrilege, nor will leave
unavenged the slighted exemplar of himself. So
was it that Nero, and Domitian, and the Dionysii,
who dared by their misdeeds to pollute God's own
likeness, were cut off root and branch. So the
slayers of Servius Tullius, and the impious Catiline,
who pursued the lawful rulers of his country with
fire and sword, goaded to madness, died a wretched
death, and to all time brought dishonour on their
race."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE DETECT JO1 AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS.
WE have seen that in December 1566 Buchanan
wrote the Court masque for the festivities that
followed the baptism of James vi. This, as has
been said, was the last occasion on which we find
Buchanan on friendly terms with Mary. However
we may regard the events of the next few months,
they at least made impossible any compromise
between the two parties in the State ; and they
brought to direct issue which of the two, Catholic
or Protestant, was to fashion the destinies of Scot-
land. These events may be told in one sentence.
On the 9th of February 1567 Darnley was murdered
in the Kirk of Field ; on the 15th of May Mary
married Bothwell ; in June she was imprisoned in
Lochleven ; and in May of the next year she was a
fugitive in England. By the part which Buchanan
took in this revolution he has been made the
object of the most vehement denunciation by all
the champions of Mary from his own day to the
present. As it was through him more than any
other that the charges against Mary were made
known to Europe, it has been the invariable custom
of all who have believed in her innocence to make
abuse of Buchanan an essential part of their case.
1 Detectio Mariae Reginae Scotorum.
200
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 201
They represent him as a time-server, who, so long
as Mary had it in her power to do him any favour,
wrote beautiful poems in her honour, and danced
attendance on her Court. When the hour of her
misfortune came he deserted her for the side of
her enemies, and wrote a malignant libel which
did more to ruin her reputation in the eyes of
Europe than all the efforts of her other enemies
together. For writers of this class Buchanan is,
in truth, only worthy of notice as the author of
the Detectio, and the sycophant and afterwards
the reviler of Mary. It is curious that in his
Life written or inspired by himself he has not con-
sidered it worth while to mention that he wrote
the Detectio, or that he accompanied the Commis-
sioners who put the case against Mary before
Elizabeth. His silence is certainly not due to
any regret or shame for the part he played ; for
in his History he has stated with added emphasis
every charge brought against her in the Detectio,
and thus confidently left it to posterity to judge
of his good faith and the truth of his indict-
ment. As his good name, however, has seriously
suffered at the hands of successive generations of
special pleaders, whose sole concern has been to
vindicate Mary at all costs, it is necessary to speak
at greater length of this episode than it really
deserves. And it may be said in passing that
the writers wjho have thus denounced Buchanan
have shown an ignorance of the facts of his life, of
the scope and significance of his work, of his rela-
tions with certain of the finest spirits of the time,1
1 These relations will be further illustrated in the chapter on
Buchanan's Correspondence.
202 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
only to be justified by their praiseworthy desire to
say all that can be said for the most interesting and
most unhappy of women.1
The true relations of Buchanan to Mary have
already been stated; but the charges brought
against him of being first her pensioner and
flatterer, and afterwards her libeller, have been
so pertinaciously repeated that it is as well they
should again be put before the reader.2 The only
so-called pension which Buchanan received from
Mary was that from the Abbey of Crossraguel, and
it has been seen that it brought to him as much
worry and vexation as profit.3 If Mary had seriously
exerted herself, it is possible that the pension might
have proved a more substantial boon. Moreover, it
can hardly be denied that one of the most brilliant
scholars in Europe, and beyond a doubt one of the
great men of the age, in acting as classical tutor to
Mary, and doing other services for which he was
better fitted than any one else in her kingdom, had
a distinct claim on her liberality which makes it
preposterous to speak of him as her mere pensioner.
The truth is, also, that whatever may have been
Mary's generosity, Buchanan was in actual straits
while she was in power.
Buchanan has been styled a flatterer and a
time-server because in certain poems he has spoken
of Mary in terms which flagrantly contradict what
1 Thus Mr. Hosack actually confounds the Detectio with the Actio.
Moreover, if one thing be more certain than another, it is that the Actio
was not written by Buchanan. — Hosack, Mary Stewart (1888), p. 15. Cf.
p. 213 (below).
2 " An accomplished Latin scholar, Buchanan was without doubt the
most venal and unscrupulous of men." — Hosack, p. 17. Other writers
of the type of Mr. Hosack speak in the same strain.
3 As Dr. Dickson has pointed out to me, the pension of 250 pounds
would cease when that from Crossraguel Abbey was conferred. Cf.
p. 186 (above).
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 203
he afterwards said of her in her misfortune. It
has already been more than once remarked that it
would be absurd to take as genuine expressions of
opinion the panegyrics of the Latin poets of the
Renaissance. We have seen how the University of
Paris regarded its self-imposed function of address-
ing princes in terms of ill-deserved eulogy. Lord
Bacon, himself an adept in the art, has told us
what such panegyric meant in his day. " Some
praises," he says, "come of good wishes, and re-
spects, which is a form due in civility to kings and
great persons. Laudando prcecipere ; when by tell-
ing men what they are, they represent to them what
they should be."1 It is assuredly in the light of
these remarks of Bacon that we must understand
Buchanan when he praises Mary, and de 1'Hopital
when he praises Catharine de Medici and the
Cardinal Lorraine.
But by his entire line of action previous to the
dethronement of Mary, Buchanan left her in no
manner of doubt as to the side he took in her
contests with the reforming party. He took his
place year after year in the General Assembly, and
thus identified himself with a body which sought to
traverse her policy at every step. He published
his Franciscanus, one of the bitterest satires of the
age on the religion which she professed, and dedi-
cated it with a laudatory preface to her brother the
Earl of Moray, whom at no time she regarded
with much affection. And, finally, he won the un-
qualified approval of the most determined of all her
opponents, Knox, the very last man in the world
who would approve any time-serving compromise
1 Essays : Of Praise.
204 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
with Papistry. It is difficult, therefore, to see what
more Buchanan could have done to show that what-
ever his relations to Mary, he retained all through
perfect mental independence and freedom of action.
It is indeed only utter ignorance of the facts of his
life, and the necessities of a precarious argument,
that could present Buchanan as the venal and
supple- kneed courtier. Whatever may have been
his faults or weaknesses, greed of money or place,
or cringing subservience to authority, were certainly
not amongst them. Again and again throughout
his life, in Scotland, in France, and in Portugal, he
injured his prospects and risked his safety by the
uncompromising frankness of his speech. As far as
his attitude towards the policy and religion of Mary
was concerned, it was that of antagonism from
the date of his return to Scotland till the date of
his death. That he was on good terms with Mary
till the murder of Darnley is to the credit of both,
since both understood that on the most important
questions that touch man's welfare each deliberately
sought to undo the work of the other.
From the murder of Darnley Buchanan's friendly
feeling for Mary was changed to indignation and
contempt, and thenceforward he took his place
among the most formidable of her enemies. It is
his share in the proceedings taken against her by
the insurgent party under Moray that has brought
down on him the obloquy of her champions from
that day to this. Yet when all he said and did is
temperately considered, nothing can be clearer than
that, holding the political and religious views he did,
he could hardly have acted otherwise as a patriot
and man of honour. In justifying the conduct of
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 205
Buchanan it will not be necessary to defame Mary.
Whether she was guilty or not, Buchanan's good
faith in either case must be perfectly manifest to
every one but a partisan.
After Mary's marriage with Bothwell, it is un-
questionable that the general conviction, not only
in Scotland, but in England and Europe, was that
she had her own share in the murder of her late
husband. Her own ambassador in France gave her
plainly enough to understand what men thought of
her in that country ; but a more interesting testi-
mony than that of her ambassador Beaton is found
in a Latin poem by one who stands as the highest
type of civic virtue in the sixteenth century, the
great Chancellor de 1'Hopital. L'Hopital, it will
be remembered, was one of the multitude of poets
who, along with Buchanan, celebrated the youthful
charm of Mary on her marriage with the Dauphin
Francis. "The murder of Darnley," says Ste. Beuve,1
1 Ste. Beuve, Causeries, 11 aout 1851. This poem of De I'Hopital
was not to be found in any edition of his works at my disposal. I am
indebted for a copy of it to M. Manget of the Lycee, Versailles, who
found it in an edition of I'Hopital published at Amsterdam in 1732.
The poem is entitled In Mortem Regis Scotiae. I give the lines that
specially refer to Mary. The poet has been speaking of the various
inhuman crimes committed during his century, and he proceeds : —
" En aliud ! Juveni modo quae regina inarito
Nupserat, et sobolem formosam mater alebat,
Ilium ipsum vesana novis oppressit inermem
Artibus. At medium jam nox confecerat orbem,
Versa repente domus, subjecto fulgure et igni
Quo misere casu ambusti regalibus omnes
Qui tectis suberant, attritaque membra jacentum,
Exanimum Regis, nuduin et sine vulnere corpus
Ad prirnum lapidem (flammae vis tanta) repertum est.
O diros hominum mores ! O tempora ! Quid non
Laesus amor spretis naturae legibus audet ?
Talia cum reges prospectant, posse tueri
Praesidiis hominum sperent se tempore nullo.
Non vis, non humana potest prudentia casus
Diffugere innumeros quibus est obnoxia vita.
Ergo communes cum sint hoc tempore casus,
206 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
" echoed beyond the seas ; I'Hopital, that repre-
sentative of the human conscience during a fright-
ful age, heard in his country-house of the crime
(ggarement) of her whose first marriage and early
grace he had celebrated ; he gave solemn expression
to his indignation in a new piece of Latin verse, in
which he recounts the horrors of that fatal night,
and does not shrink from naming the wife and
young mother as the murderer of the father of the
child still at her breast." When such was the
general impression in Catholic France, we may judge
how Mary must have been regarded in Scotland,
and, above all, among those of her subjects who had
all along held that, alike by her religion and entire
manner of life, she was fast in the bonds of iniquity.
Among men of this type there can be no doubt
whatever that there was absolute certainty that
Mary was guilty of her husband's murder. But
these were the men with whom Buchanan was in
daily contact. Everything considered, therefore, it
would be manifestly unjust to question Buchanan's
good faith if he shared the conviction of those
whom, with all their excesses, we are bound to con-
sider the saving element in the country.
But we have no reason to suppose that Buchanan
was convinced of Mary's guilt before a discovery
was made which of necessity must have put all his
doubts to rest. On the 20th of June, four months
after Darnley's murder, the famous Casket Letters
came into the hands of the Earl of Morton. The
recent discovery of the deposition made by Morton
Quumque premat reges eadem fortuna superbos,
Stulta sui fuerit vel inanis cura tuendi,
Adversante Deo, rumpit qui stamina vitae
Arbitrioque suo longos producit in annos."
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 207
before the English Commissioners appointed by
Elizabeth to sit on Mary's case has shed the fullest
light on the history of these letters.1 On the day
following the seizure of the casket, the letters and
poems it contained were carefully scrutinised in the
presence of the Earls of Morton, Mar, Glencairn,
Lords Home, Semple, Sanquhar, the Master of
Grahame, Maitland of Lethington, and the Laird of
Tullibardine. Among these witnesses several were
Catholics, and others were known to be the staunch
friends of Mary; and it is they to whom Morton
refers in his deposition as evidence for the genuine-
ness of the letters. Of this discovery, and the con-
clusive attestation to its genuineness, Buchanan,
from his close connection with the leading men in
the country, must have heard almost immediately.
Under these circumstances, can we wonder that
Buchanan should have been convinced of the
Queen's guilt, proved as it was by the testimony of
her best friends ?
The month following the seizure of the casket
letters, the General Assembly met in Edinburgh,
and Buchanan for the first time acted in the
capacity of Moderator. The doings of the Queen
formed the great theme of discussion, and so stern
was the feeling against her, that but for the inter-
ference of Throgmorton, the English ambassador, it
seemed likely that the Assembly would recommend
sentence of death as the only sufficient punishment of
1 For the details of this discovery see Henderson's The, Casket Letters
and Mary Queen of Scots (Adam and Charles Black, 1890). Morton's
deposition disposes of the strongest argument against the genuineness of
the letters, viz., that Morton may have forged or tampered with them
between the date of the casket's falling into his hands and his delivery
of it to Moray — an interval of fifteen months. As the controversy now
stands, the probabilities are greatly in favour of the genuineness of the
letters ; and Maitland comes worst out of the whole case.
208 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
her crimes.1 After violent debate, it was at length
resolved that she should be called upon to demit the
crown in favour of her son. As the leaders of the
Church acted at this time in the closest union
with the Protestant lords, in all likelihood these
proceedings of the Assembly are in part to be
explained by their privacy to the secret of the
casket letters.
In October 1568 Moray proceeded to York to
lay before the Commissioners of Elizabeth the
indictment against Mary. He took with him the
Earl of Morton, the Bishop of Orkney, Lord Lind-
say, and the Commendator of Dunfermline, as the
Commissioners for Scotland ; and added, as assistants
to these, Maitland, James Makgill, and Buchanan.
It must certainly be regarded as a tribute to the
character and high reputation of Buchanan that he,
a simple scholar, was chosen to make one of a body
charged with such weighty responsibilities.
Of the tedious and tortuous proceedings of the
Commissioners, first at York and afterwards at
Westminster, it is unnecessary here to give any
detailed account. The only question with which
we are concerned is, whether Buchanan, as a man
of honour, was in his place as an aider in these pro-
ceedings against his Queen. The charges which
Moray and his colleagues brought against Mary
were contained in the casket letters, and in a
document known as the Book of Articles, in which
the case against her was set down in a formal
indictment. Until the recent discovery of the
original Book of Articles, it was generally supposed
that this document was the famous Detectio, written
1 Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. iii. chap. viii.
THE DETECT 10 AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 209
by Buchanan himself.1 As the veritable Book of
Articles was written in Scots, and in legal form, it
is unlikely that Buchanan had any hand in drawing
it up. But whoever drew it up, the men respon-
sible for its contents were Moray, Morton, and
Lethington.2 It is on their evidence that the
indictment is based, and on their oath that it is
authenticated. Of the charges enumerated in the
Book of Articles, Buchanan could have known
nothing from personal experience. His position,
therefore, was this. Like all men of his way of
thinking in politics and religion, he was disposed by
the general course of events to believe that Mary
was guilty ; but when this presumption was sup-
ported by direct evidence sworn to by her friends
and foes alike, it was no longer possible for him to
resist the conviction of the Queen's guilt. This
being the case, it is clear that, as a Protestant and
a lover of his country, he was bound to do all in his
power to prevent her return to the throne. He
must have thought, and was certainly justified in
thinking, that to restore to her throne a woman
capable of the crimes laid to her charge, would be
an outrage on society which no possible considera-
tion of loyalty could justify. Personal feeling, also,
must have intensified his indignation against her as
a public enemy. There is no reason to believe that
Buchanan had much affection for Darnley, yet as the
1 This document was found among the Hopetoun Manuscripts, and
published by Hosack in his Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers. There
seems no reason to doubt that it is the original Book of Articles laid
before the English Commissioners. It may be said that Camden clearly
distinguishes between Buchanan's Detectio and the Book of Articles. —
History of Elizabeth (London, 1675), pp. 116, 117.
2 Anderson's Collections : " The Copie of a Letter written by one in
London to his Friend, concerning the Credit of the late published Detec-
tion of the Doynges of the Ladie Mary of Scotland," vol. ii. pp. 261-267.
O
210 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
head of his own clan, the fact that he had been the
victim could not lout have its own share in whetting
the rhetoric of the Detectio. Moreover, the very
youth and beauty of Mary (she was only twenty-five
at the murder of her husband), to which Buchanan
as a poet must have been more susceptible than
most men, must, in the light in which he now
regarded her, have added a certain loathing to his
wrath, which need hardly excite our wonder. Such,
then, is the simple account of Buchanan's attitude
towards Mary after the murder of Darnley. It will
be seen that he is equally justified whether she be
regarded as innocent or guilty. If she were innocent,
the odium must lie at the door of the " practical
politicians " — a race of men, it must be admitted,
who, in all ages, have had a conscience and a moral
law peculiar to themselves.
It has been said that the Book of Articles was
distinct from the Detectio, and that it, and not the
Detectio, contained the original list of charges
brought against Mary and laid before the English
Commissioners. Whether the Detectio, in the form
in which we have it, was also laid before them, it
is difficult to determine. If we may believe an
anonymous writer, who seems to speak from special
information, in all probability it was.1 " The book
itself" (meaning the Detectio}, says the writer, " was
written by hym, not as of hymself nor in his own
name, but according to the instructions to him given
by common conference of the Lordes of the Privie
Counsel of Scotland, by hym onely for hys learning
penned, but by them the Mater ministred, the book
ouerseen and allowed, and exhibited by them as Mater
1 Anderson's Collections, vol. ii. p. 261.
THE DETECT10 AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 211
that they have offered and do continue in offering
to stand to and justifie before our Soveraigne Lady,
or her Highnesses Commissioners in that behalf
apointed." The same writer says that a copy of
the Detectio was found in " one of the Duke of
Norfolk's men's houses " after that nobleman's arrest.
As Norfolk was arrested in October 1569, the \
Detectio must at least have been in circulation long
before its publication. The form in which it is cast
would also lead us to believe that it was expressly
written to be submitted to the Commissioners, as
in the opening sentence the writer formally
addresses Elizabeth as if in her presence.1
The matter of the Detectio, we have seen, is
almost exclusively drawn from the Book of Articles;
but in Buchanan's production, it is presented with
a literary force and skill, and penetrated with a
passion, that transform it into a deadly indictment.
To the reader of the present day its tone must
hardly appear such as becomes an arraignment of a
sovereign, however great her crimes. But it would
be utterly uncritical to judge this performance by
present canons of taste and good feeling. The
Detectio, like all Buchanan's literary work, must be
judged by the standard it is necessary to apply to
all the productions of humanism. We have seen
how, in the case of his poetry — of his erotic verses,
his translation of the Psalms, his didactic poem of
the Sphere — his choice of subject and manner of
treatment were determined by the conditions of his
age. The Detectio, also, to be properly understood,
and to receive its due place in our final estimate of
Buchanan, must be read in the light of the amazing
1 Yet in the Detectio Moray is spoken of as dead.
212 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
controversial literature of the humanists. A writer,
who speaks with the highest authority on the
learned literature of the sixteenth century, thus
marks the traditions of humanism in its mode of
conducting controversy : " It is impossible to defend,
and difficult to excuse, the scurrility with which
Dolet speaks of the greatest scholar and the fore-
most man of letters of his age (Erasmus). All that
can be said in extenuation is, that scurrility of this
kind was a common practice of the literary men of
the day in writing of their opponents, that we find it
in men distinguished for their ability, learning, and
virtue, and that, violent as the language of Dolet ap-
pears, it is far less violent, far less scurrilous, and far
less unseemly, than that which Julius Csesar Scaliger
used of the same great man, or that which Luther
applied to Henry vin. and his other opponents,
whilst it is absolutely moderate in comparison with
the language of Filelfo, of Poggio, and of Valla."
It is in view of these controversial methods of the
humanists that we have also to judge one greater
than Buchanan. Milton himself, in his controversial
writings, has exhibited these ill-manners of the
humanists in far greater degree, and certainly with
far less provocation, than Buchanan in any invectives
he has left us.2
It is quite in the spirit of humanism, therefore,
that Buchanan wrote his Detectio. The matter was
not his own ; but, called on by Moray and his
associates to present it in literary form, he did so
in the most approved fashion of his contemporaries.
1 Christie, Life of Etienne Dolel, p. 201.
2 Those who would judge Milton and Buchanan aright in this matter
should read the controversial pamphlets of Melanchthon and Sir Thomas
More, two of the most finely-touched spirits the world has known.
THE DETECT JO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 213
The subject was one, indeed, after the humanist's
own heart, commanding, as it did, the interest of
Europe, and offering the most splendid scope for
all the turns of Ciceronian rhetoric. Buchanan
wrote it, therefore, in the full consciousness that his
reputation as a scholar was in question. How
he succeeded, the obloquy of three centuries on
the part of Mary's advocates is the most signifi-
cant commentary. It was published in London
in 1571, accompanied by Latin translations of
three of the casket letters, and a pamphlet
entitled Actio contra Mariam Scotorum Reginam.1
By some writers this pamphlet has also been attri-
buted to Buchanan. But no one acquainted with
his writings could for a moment imagine it to be
his. It goes over exactly the same ground as the
Detectio, in the most rambling fashion, and in a
spirit compared with which Buchanan's philippic is
strikingly judicial. Moreover, its feeble rhetoric
and inconsequent logic have not the remotest sug-
gestion of the masculine grasp and nervous energy
of Buchanan.2 Immediately afterwards appeared a
translation of the Detectio into Scots, executed by
an Englishman with imperfect knowledge of the
dialect ; and in 1572 a Scots version was published
at St. Andrews. This last translation has been
ascribed, perhaps erroneously, to Buchanan himself.
In certain passages the translator has missed the
meaning of the original Latin, which could hardly
1 Mr. Henderson (The Casket Letters, p. 46) has given an accurate
account of the first edition of the Detectio and the various subsequent
translations.
2 Malcolm Laing, History of Scotland, vol. iii. pp. 247 et seq., con-
clusively showed by external evidence that the Actio could not have
been written by Buchanan. He shows that in all probability it was
written by Dr. Thomas Wilson.
214 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
have happened had Buchanan himself been the
translator.1 In February 1573 a French translation
appeared, ostensibly published at Edinburgh, but
in reality at Rochelle by the Huguenots. Ulti-
mately, Buchanan embodied the Detectio almost
entire in his History, and thus pledged his faith to
posterity for the truth of its statements. That he
should have done so, in the full knowledge that
these statements were mere libellous falsehoods, is
so utterly inconsistent with the whole strain of his
life and character, that to maintain it can be only
the desperate shift of the blindest partisanship.2
The full title of the Detectio will sufficiently
explain its character and scope. It is as follows :
" De Maria Scotorum Regina, totaque ejus contra
Regem conjuratione, foedo cum Bothuelio adult erio,
nefaria in maritum crudelitate et rabie, horrendo
insuper et deterrimo ejusdem parricidio, plena,
et tragica plane Historia." As Malcolm Laing
pointed out, this most unclassical title could hardly
have been the work of Buchanan. The title of the
Scots translation is as follows : " Ane Detectioun of
the Duinges of Marie, Quene of Scottes, touchand
the murder of hir husband, and hir conspiracie,
adulterie, and pretensed mariage with the Erie
Bothwell ; and ane Defence of the trew Lordis,
mainteineris of the Kingis gracis, actioun and au-
thoritie." It is, of course, impossible to present a
summary of the Detectio, as it consists simply of a
1 Ruddiman pointed this out, and was of opinion that Buchanan was
not the translator. At the same time, the style of the translation
appears to be exactly that of Buchanan's Admonition and Chamaehon.
2 On the supposition that the casket letters were forged, a forger
had to be found, and at one time Buchanan, among others, was sug-
gested. But apart from the absurdity of such a suggestion, as the
controversy now stands, it is irrelevant.
THE DETEOT10 AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 215
long series of accusations whose only connection is
chronological. We give the opening paragraph of
the Scots translation : —
" Quhairas of Thingis judiciallie determinit with-
in ony Dominioun, to have Accompt demandit be
Strangeris, is to sic as be not subject to forane
Jurisdictioun, baith strange, and also for the
Strangenes displesant, to us above all uther it aucht
to be maist grevous, quha are drevin to yis Streicht of
Necessitie, yat, quhais Faultis we desyre to cover,
thair Lyves we ar enforcit to accuse, unles we will
our selfis be accomptit the maist wickit Persones
that live : Bot a greib Part of this Greif is relevit
be our Equitie, (maist excellent Quene) quha tak it
na les displesandly to se your Kinniswoman, than
we to se our Quene, thus in Speiche of all Men, to
be dishonorabillie reportit, quha alswa ar for zour
Part na les desyrous to understand the Treuth, than
we for ouris to avoide Sclander. Thairfor we will
knit up the Mater als breifly as possibilly may be,
and declair it with sic Schortnes, as we may rather
seeme to have lychtly ryn ower the chief Pointis,
than to have largely expressit thame, beginning at
the Quenis first Inconstancie ; for as in making of
hir Mariage, hir Lichtnes was verray heidlang and
rasche, sa suddanely followit outher inwart Repent-
aunce, or at leist outward Takinis of Change in
hir Affectioun without ony causes Appering. For
quhair befoir Tyme the King was not only Neglectit,
hot also not honorabillie usit, at length began oppin
Haitrent to brek out againis him, specially in that
Wynter quhen he went to Pebles, with small
Trayne, evin to meane for the Degre of ane private
Man ; not being sent thether a Hawking, bot as com-
216 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
mandit away into a Corner, far from Counsel! and
Knawledge of publict affairis. Nouther is it neces-
sarie to put in Wryting thay Thingis, quhilk as thay
wer than as a Spectacle notit of all Mennis Eyis, sa
now, as a fresch Image thay remane imprentit in all
,' Mennis Hartis. And thocht this wer the Begin-
ning of all the Evilis that followit, zit at the first
the Practises were secreit, sa as not only the com-
moun Pepill, bot alswa sic as wer richt familiar
and present at the doing of mony Materis, culd
not understand throuchly quhat Thing the Quene
than chiefly intendit."
While the Commissioners were in London,
Buchanan seems to have enjoyed the best society
the city could then offer. With the family of Cecil,
Elizabeth's great minister, he was on the most inti-
mate footing. To the wife of Cecil he addressed
four short poems, which give us a curious glimpse
into the society of the time. While he addresses
her in a strain that implies intercourse on the
friendliest terms, he does not hesitate to suggest
that a poet is a privileged person, who confers a
benefit in accepting a solid reward for his verses.
Lady Cecil perfectly understands the suggestion,
and not only meets the request with liberality, but
accompanies her present with a Latin poem, which
Buchanan, as a matter of course, declares to be
infinitely more precious to him than her gold. To
Queen Elizabeth herself he also addressed two
poems — one an ode, in which he tells her that her
chief claim to honour is to have restored true re-
ligion and rid the country of idle monks ; the other
an epigram in which he concludes with the prayer
that she may ever remain simply as she is, since he
THE DETECT10 AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 217
can wish her no gift she does not already enjoy.
But his most pleasant intercourse in London must,
we should think, have been with his friend Roger
Ascham, who held the same post with Elizabeth —
that of classical tutor — as he himself had lately
held with Mary. This was the last year of As-
cham's life, and when they parted he presented
Buchanan with a copy of Virgil, accompanying it
with an inscription, which marks the affection and
admiration with which he had come to regard him :
"Rogerus Aschamus Georgio Bucchanano, Anglus
Scoto, Amicus amico, hunc poetam omnis veteris
memoriae optimum, Poetae hujus nostrae aetatis
optimo, amoris ergo, dono dat." Buchanan acknow-
ledges the gift in some graceful lines, which prove
that the esteem was mutual, and that he had lost
nothing of the happy skill in epigram which was
the envy of his contemporaries.1
Moray and his colleagues returned to Scotland
in the beginning of 1569, and Buchanan probably
accompanied them.2 As they were the direct sequel
of the proceedings against Mary, this seems the
most suitable place to give some account of two
political pamphlets written by Buchanan in support
of the King's party. These are the Admonitioun to
the trew Lordis3 and the Chamaeleon, both in the
Scots dialect. Both of these pamphlets had their
origin in the critical state of affairs that followed
1 Epig. i. 39.
2 At least he was in St. Andrews in April 1569.— Sibbald, Commen-
tarius in Vitam Georgii fluchanani, p. 66.
3 The full title is "Ane Admonitioun direct to the trew Lordis
maintenaris of Justice and Obedience to the Kingis Grace". In the
diary of Bishop Lesley there is the following reference to this tract,
under date 9th October 1571 : " Attulit et libellum quendam famosum
compositum per Georg. Bocha. precipue contra Hamiltonios et Ducem
Norfolcie." — Sannatyne Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 155.
218 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the assassination of the Regent Moray, and they
prove that Buchanan was no mere theoretical
politician, but one who was in practical contact
with the affairs of the day, and who put his strength
into what he believed to be the righteous cause.
Both pamphlets are as far as possible from the
.idle declamation of the arm-chair politician. They
show keen political insight into the situation, and
put the case of the King's party with telling effect.
It is proof of the shrewd sense that made the foun-
dation of his character, that in a practical cause he
avoided the rhetoric of literary politicians like
Milton, and spoke in a manner that could make
itself felt by plain men. In his pithy phrase and
firm grasp of facts he suggests Swift and Defoe
rather than Milton and Burke, though behind
Buchanan's words there is a moral intensity of
which Swift at least was unconscious.
In the Admonitioun Buchanan's main contention
is that in the safety of the young King lies the only
hope for liberty and religion in Scotland ; and the
object of the pamphlet is to place before James's
supporters the national ruin that must follow the
defeat of their cause. The great enemies they have
to fear are the Hamiltons, whose triumph would only
bring disaster to King and country alike. To make
this statement good he sketches at length the his-
tory of that family through the last half-century,
and proves that its action all along had known but
one motive — the acquisition of the Crown for the
head of their house. By religion and politics alike
Buchanan was opposed to the aims of the house of
Hamilton ; and his feelings were whetted by the
long-standing feud between them and the house of
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 219
Lennox. The Hamiltons had hut lately murdered
the statesman whom Buchanan had admired most,
the Regent Moray ; they had taken an active part
in the murder of Darnley ; it was through them
that Darnley's father had heen so long exiled from
Scotland ; and it was one of their house who had
brutally slain the grandfather of Darnley after he
had surrendered himself a prisoner of war. Such
being his relations with the house of Hamilton, it
was not to be expected that Buchanan's account of
their family history would be perfectly impartial.
Yet, in the main, all he has said against them is
fully borne out by the facts of their history as we
now know it. The party of Mary and the party of
Moray both stood on principles which high-minded
men could adopt in the honest conviction that in
enforcing them they were working for the best
interests of their country. But the Hamiltons
played fast and loose with either party according as
it served themselves, and steadily sacrificed the
interests of the country in the interests of their
own house. The only justification of their self-
seeking policy is that it was perhaps more than
human nature in that age could endure to have a
crown dangling at the ends of their fingers, yet
ever eluding their grasp.
The other pamphlet, the Chamaeleon, is directed
against Maitland of Lethington, whose policy since
the fall of Mary had been steadily, though stealthily,
directed against the party to which Buchanan be-
longed. In Buchanan's view of the best interests
of the country, Maitland's conduct was utterly
inexplicable, except on the supposition of sheer
factiousness or shameless love of intrigue. It was
220 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
through, him more than any one else that Mary's party
still made head in Scotland, and thus prevented a
firm government from being set up, which, working
in union with England, should present a common
front against the great Catholic powers of Europe.
In this belief, and under the conviction that Maitland
was privy to the scheme for the assassination of
Moray, he wrote the Chamaeleon, and drew a portrait
of Lethington with just that amount of truth and
caricature which would make him at once odious
and ridiculous in the eyes of his countrymen.
Lethington's career certainly lends itself easily
enough to such treatment. At one time or other
of his public life he had worked in concert with all
the leading persons in the country, and his contem-
poraries are hardly to be blamed if they failed to
discover in his tortuous policy the unwavering pur-
pose of the true patriot and great statesman. In the
seething elements of civil strife, fanatical zeal, and
hereditary feuds that make Scottish history of this
period, Lethington strikes us as one of the oddest
apparitions of that strange time. By his seductive
charm, his ironical wit, his lack of moral intuitions, his
insensibility to all enthusiasms, his utter irrelevance
to a time of revolution, he is perhaps as close an
approximation to a Talleyrand as Scotland could
produce.1 The news had reached him, it appears,
that such a pamphlet by Buchanan was forthcom-
ing, and the house of Lekprevik, the printer, was
searched by his order. Lekprevik, having had
warning of the visit, made his escape with " such
1 The well-known douceur seduisante of Talleyrand seems to have
been equally remarkable in Maitland. Louis xi. had this quality ill
equally high degree. The family likeness between all three is very
evident.
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 221
things as he feared should have hurt him 'V The
publication of the Chamaeleon was thus stopped,
and it was not printed till 1710. In his History of
Scotland, Buchanan had again occasion to deal with
the character and career of Maitland. He speaks
approvingly of his early promise and striking talents,
but still reprobates what he considers his unprin-
cipled desertion to the enemy. The Chamaeleon
is, in truth, but the humorous presentment of
Buchanan's definitive judgment on Lethington's
character and entire career.2 The opening para-
graph of Buchanan's tract will give the reader some
idea of its general character and drift : —
" Thair is a certane kynd of beist callit Chamae-
leon, engenderit in sic countreis as the sone hes
mair strenth in than in this yle of Brettane, the
quhilk, albeit it be small of corporance, noghttheless
it is of ane strange nature, the quhilk makis it to
be na less celebrat and spoken of than sum beastis
of greittar quantitie. The proprieties is marvalous,
for quhat thing ever it be applicat to, it semis to be
of the samyn cullour, and imitatis all hewis, excepte
onelie the quhyte and reid ; and for this caus anciene
writtaris commonlie comparis it to ane flatterare,
quhilk imitatis all the haill maneris of quhome he
fenzeis him self to be friend to, except quhyte,
quhilk is taken to be the symboll and tokin gevin
1 Bannatyne's Memorials, p. 110. It has been asserted that Banna-
tyne is not a sufficient authority for this story. But it is in itself in-
trinsically probable ; and the fact remains that the pamphlet was not
published till 1710. There must therefore have been some reason for
its non-appearance.
2 It has been inadvertently affirmed that in his History Buchanan
presents Maitland in a very different light from that in which he pre-
sents him in the Chamadeon. Any one who reads the nineteenth
book of Buchanan's History, however, will see that this is far from being
the case. The gravest accusations brought against Maitland in the
Chamaeleon are also to be found in the History.
222 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
commonlie in devise of colouris to signifie sempil-
nes and loyaltie, and reid signifying manliness and
heroyicall courage. This applicatioun being so usit,
zit peradventure money that hes nowther sene the
said beist, nor na perfyte portraict of it, wald beleif
sick thing not to be trew. I will thairfore set furth
schortlie the descriptioun of sick an monsture not
lang ago engendrit in Scotland, in the cuntre of
Lowthiane, not far from Hadingtoun, to that effect
that the forme knawin, the most pestiferous nature
of the said monsture may be moir easelie evitit : for
this monsture being under coverture of a manis
figure, may easeliar endommage and wers be escha-
pit than gif it wer moir deforme and strange of face,
behaviour, schap, and membris. Praying the reidar
to apardoun the febilnes of my waike spreit and
engyne, gif it can not expreme perfytelie ane strange
creature, maid by nature, other willing to schaw hir
greit strenth, or be sum accident turnit be force
frome the common trade and course."
Bat these two pamphlets of Buchanan have
perhaps a stronger interest from a literary and
philological than a historical point of view. The
vernacular style in which they are written is unique
in Scottish prose literature. Buchanan, it is to be
remembered, spoke and wrote a foreign language
for more than thirty years of his life, and studied
it witfe such intensity that it became to him as
natural a vehicle of expression as his mother tongue.
When he came to write in Scots in his old age,
therefore, it is not surprising that he actually
thought in Latin what he wrote in Scots. His
two pamphlets leave exactly the impression of
close translations from the Latin. But while the
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 223
syntactical structure of his sentences is thus so
distinctively Latin, no Scottish prose of the period
is clearer or more effective. In none of the con-
temporary Scottish writers do we find any concep-
tion of the true nature of a sentence.1 So long as
they keep to short periods they contrive to convey
their meaning with tolerable success, though wholly
without rhythm or neatness of expression. When
they embark on a long period, they hobble through
it with a disregard for logical relations that fills a
modern reader with despair. In the case of Knox,
it is the sheer triumph of moral and intellectual
force that gives his History its distinctive flavour.
Even in England, as is well known, it was not till
long after this date that the compass of the sentence
was clearly apprehended. In speaking of the de-
velopment of English prose, Coleridge has some
remarks which find interesting illustration in the
Scots style of Buchanan. " If you take Sophocles,
Catullus, Lucretius, the better paits of Cicero, and
so on," he says, " you may, with just two or three
exceptions arising out of the different idioms as to
cases, translate page after page into good mother
English, word by word, without altering the order."2
A few sentences from the opening of his Admoni-
tion will illustrate the truth of Coleridge's remarks.
Individual words are given in modern English that
the rhythm of the sentences may be more readily
felt :-
"It may seem to your lordships that I, meddling
with high matters of governing of commonwealths,
do pass mine estate, being of so mean quality, and
1 In The Complaynt of Scotland we have something of the conscious
art of Buchanan.
2 Table Talk, vol. ii. p. 56 (Murray, 1835).
224 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
forget my duty, giving counsel to the wisest of this
realm. Not the less, seeing the misery so great
appearing, and the calamity so near approaching, I
thought it less fault to incur the crime of surmount-
ing my private estate than the blame of neglecting
the public danger. Therefore I chose rather to
underlie the opinion of presumption in speaking
than of treason in silence, and specially of such
things, as even seem presently to redound to the
perpetual shame of your lordships, destruction of
this royal estate, and ruin of the whole common-
wealth of Scotland. On this consideration I have
taken in hand at this time to advertise your honours
of such things as I thought to appertain both to
your lordships in special, and in general to the
whole community of this realm, in punishment of
traitors, pacification of troubles among yourselves,
and continuation of peace with our neighbours."
Nothing could be clearer than the syntax of this
passage, yet, as we read, we are inevitably reminded
of the grandiose periods of Roman oratory. In his
familiar letters Buchanan has the same syntactical
structure, but with a lighter movement and quicker
turns. Unfortunately only two of these letters have
been preserved. We give one of them iu the original
Scots. It will be seen that we have good reason to
regret that more such have not come down to us.
Its companion, also addressed to Randolph, is,
however, the racier and more characteristic of the
two.1
" To Maister Randolf Squiar, Maister of Posten
to the Quenes Grace of Ingland. Maister, I
haif resavit diverse letters from you, and yit I
1 See also Appendix C.
THE DETECTIO AND VERNACULAR WRITINGS. 225
have ansourit to nain of thayme : of the quhylke
albeit I half mony excusis, as age, forge tfulness,
besiness, and disease, yit I wyl use nane as now,
except my sweirness and your gentilnes : and geif
ye thynk nane of theise sufficient, content you with
ane confession of the fait w*out fear of punition to
follow on my onkindness. As for the present I am
occupyit in writying of our historie, being assurit to
content few, and to displease mony tharthrow. As
to the end of it, yf ye gett it not or thys winter be
passit, lippin not for it, nor nane other writyngs
from me. The rest of my occupation is wyth the
gout, quhilk holdis me besy both day and ny*.
And quhair ye say ye haif not lang to lyif, I traist
to God to go before you, albeit I be on fut, and ye
ryd the post ; praying you also not to dispost my
hoste at Newyerk, Jone of Kelsterne. Thys I pray
you, partly for his awyne sake, quhame I tho* ane
gud fellow, and partly at request of syk as I dar
no* refuse. And thus I tak my leif shortly at you
now, and my lang leif quhen God pleasis, committing
you to the protection of the almy*ty. At Sterling
xxv. day of August, 1577. — Yours to command w*
service, G. BUCHANAN."
CHAPTER XV.
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.
IN all schemes for the advancement of education in
Scotland, it was to be expected that Buchanan
would be consulted as the highest authority in the
country. His European reputation as a scholar, and
his wide experience as a practical teacher, marked
him out as the one man fitted to place Scotland
abreast of other countries in all the new studies and
all the new methods. We have abundant evidence
that he took the keenest interest in all matters
connected with education, and that he not only had
a leading share in the many schemes proposed for
the improvement of the universities, but that more
than once he was the prompter of substantial boons
in their favour. At the same time, the protracted
unsettlement of public affairs rendered all but
abortive the best endeavours of himself and the
reformers associated with him. Lack of funds,
divided aims, religious dissensions, civil discord, made
impossible that system of national education so
nobly set forth in the Book of Discipline. As it is,
therefore, Buchanan is not to be ranked with such
educationists as his friend Jean Sturm, whose school
at Strasburg was his so durable monument. Even
had Buchanan had the administrative genius of
226
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 227
Sturm, which is very doubtful, it could never have
been in his power, as things then went, to establish
in Scotland such a school for secondary education as
Sturm was able to set up in Strasburg. It is pro-
bable, therefore, that Buchanan's most effective
service to education in Scotland was mainly through
the inspiration of his own great name as a scholar,
and his life-long devotion to learning. That his
example had the most direct and potent influ-
ence on the studious youth of Scotland is amply
proved by testimonies from Andrew Melville to
Melvin of Aberdeen. His poems, also, especially
his version of the Psalms — systematically used in
schools in the teaching of Latin — themselves
establish for him a solid claim on the gratitude of
his countrymen.
In 1566, we have seen, Moray appointed
Buchanan principal of the College of St. Leonard
at St. Andrews. The College of St. Leonard had
originally been the Hospital of St. Leonard, founded
for the accommodation of pilgrims who came to see
the wonders wrought by the bones of St. Andrew. In
1512 the Hospital had been converted into a College
by Prior Hepburn, supported by Alexander Stewart,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, natural son of James iv. ,
best known as the pupil of Erasmus, and by that
scholar's charming account of his character and
accomplishments. This conversion had been made
with the express desire " to preserve the tempest-
tost bark of St. Peter, and to uphold the declining
state of the Church "-1 Almost from the beginning,
however, the pious desire of the founders was doomed
to be thwarted. Its second principal, Gavin Logie
1 Lyon, History of St. Andrews, vol. ii. p. 243.
228 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
(1523-37), was one of the earliest Scotsmen to be
affected by the teaching of Luther ; and from the
date of his rule " to have drunk of St. Leonard's
Well " became the current euphemism for heretical
proclivities. According to the original foundation,
there was to be provision for a principal, four
chaplains (two of whom were to be regents), and
twenty poor scholars.1 The internal arrangements
were as nearly as possible those of a convent — in
diet, religious duties, and regulation of hours. The
students were in turn to do all the menial work of the
house, a cook and his boy being the only servants.
Before bursars were admitted, they had to be tested
in grammar (that is, Latin grammar), and in their
knowledge of the Gregorian Chant. The subjects
taught were those prescribed by all the medieval
universities for the degree of Master of Arts —
grammar, logic, physics, philosophy, metaphysics, and
ethics. During the first years of its existence, the
" College of Poor Clerks ", as its founders termed
it, was cramped by the poverty of its endowments ;
but a succession of energetic teachers and managers
won it a reputation which brought students in large
numbers from the ranks of the nobility and clergy.
By the charter of Cardinal Beaton (1544), confirming
the foundation of St. Leonard's, the Prior of St.
Andrews was to have the right of naming the
Principal ; and his choice was to be made from the
Canons of the Priory. The duties of the Principal
were those of the head of a religious house. He
was to superintend the domestic economy of the
College, to lead all the religious exercises, and, on
Wednesdays and Fridays, he was to " instruct the
1 Lyon, History of St. Andrews, vol. ii. p. 243.
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 229
presbyters, regents, and all others who chose to
attend, in sacred and speculative theology "-1
Such were the internal arrangements of St.
Leonard's on its original foundation. As the period
of the Reformation approached, however, these
arrangements must have been largely modified, both
in form and spirit, and all the more that its principals
and regents were in such marked sympathy with
the new opinions. With all the other Scottish
Colleges, St. Leonard's suffered greatly from the
troubles that preceded the establishment of the
reformed religion. In 1557, ten students in all
attended St. Mary's, ten St. Leonard's, and eleven
St. Salvator's. In 1560, the numbers were respec-
tively seven, four, and seventeen; and in 1563,
fifteen, twelve, and twelve.2 At St. Andrews, the
reformers had little difficulty in making the Univer-
sity their own. St. Leonard's, as was to be expected,
of its own accord accepted the new conditions ; and
even the staff of St. Mary's College, founded as late
as 1553-4 by Archbishop Hamilton, for the express
purpose of checking the progress of heresy, all but
unanimously declared for the enemy. The provost
and most of the regents of St. Salvator's were more
faithful to the intentions of the founders, and pre-
ferred to quit their posts rather than teach on the
terms dictated to them. It would appear, however,
that this purging was not so thorough as we might
have expected. One of the duties imposed on the
Commissioners appointed by Parliament in 1579 to
inquire into the state of the University was " to
1 Lyon, History of St. Andrews, vol. ii. p. 249. These duties were
doubtless all performed by Buchanan, though not in the sense intended
by the founders.
2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 179.
230 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
reform sic things as soundit to superstitioun,
ydolatrie, and papistrie ".
The Reformers being now masters of the situation
in St. Andrews, the progress of the new studies
throughout Europe demanded of them something
more than the mere suppression of discredited
religious forms and doctrines. If the University
was to hold its own with other seats of learning, the
entire scheme of studies would have to be recast
and adjusted to the new standards of the intellectual
revolution. At the Reformation, the studies and
methods pursued in all the three Colleges were
wholly those of Medievalism. Canon law, that
monstrous birth of the Middle Ages, the logic and
metaphysic of the schoolmen, made the staple of the
curriculum. Latin had a distinct place assigned to
it ; but it was Latin as known and handled by men
like Major, the most eminent of the representative
professors at St. Andrews before the Reformation.
On the very eve of the Reformation, as we learn
from the case of Andrew Melville,1 Greek was still
unknown in St. Mary's, the most fully equipped of
the three colleges. While the curriculum was thus
so completely antiquated, the overlapping functions
of the three colleges stood in the way of the effec-
tive and economical organisation of the University.
There was no organic connection between the
colleges, and the various subjects of study were
promiscuously taught in each. This was, of course,
the case with all the colleges of the medieval
universities ; but at St. Andrews, where the number
of colleges was so few, and funds were not over-
abundant, a distinct function for each, and an
1 James Melville's Diary, p. 39 (ed. 1842).
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 231
organic connection between all, was imperatively
needed to meet the wants of the time.
It would be unjust to the successive authorities
at St. Andrews to cast undue blame on them be-
cause so late as the middle of the sixteenth century
the number of students was so limited and the
programme of studies so antiquated. The keen
religious dissensions, the poverty of the endowments,
and the irresistible attractions of the great foreign
universities for such a wandering nation as the
Scots, sufficiently account for the meagre attendance
without injurious inferences as to the energy and
capacity of its teachers. As for any charge of
obscurantism, St. Andrews was, in truth, in the
same case with all the ancient universities of Europe.
In following Buchanan's own career we have seen
the general attitude of Paris to all the lights of the
Renaissance. When Francis, inspired by Bude,
founded the College Royal in 1530 for the study of
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, it was in the teeth of
the whole University ; and past the middle of the
century Greek and Hebrew were generally regarded
at Paris as fit only for heretics. The canon law, also,
and the medieval Aristotle, continued to make the
most essential part of its university training long
after their futility had been exposed by the labours
of the humanists.1 At Oxford, in the opening years
of the sixteenth century, Colet's novel methods of
Biblical interpretation, though strictly within the
lines of orthodoxy, were disapproved by the leading
authorities,2 and it was amid a storm of opposition
that the study of Greek gradually made way in that
1 Crevier, Histoire de V Universite de Paris, v. passim.
2 Seebohm, Oatford Reformers.
232 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
university. In Cambridge, under the auspices of
Bishop Fisher, Greek found readier acceptance,
though Erasmus in 1511 had little encouragement
as its teacher;1 and it was not till 1535 that
Medievalism had distinctly the worst of it at the
English universities.2 When we remember, also,
that at Wittemberg, the cradle of the Reformation,
Melanchthon, who died in 1560, had to struggle to
the last for a liberal scheme of studies, it will be
understood that St. Andrews, and with it the other
Scottish Universities, were not, in fact, so very far
behind their neighbours. It is worth while adding
that, by the middle of the sixteenth century, the
time had fully come when, in the interests of her
intellectual not less than her political and religious
development, Scotland should throw in her lot with
England rather than with France. While the
University of Paris was still in opposition to Renais-
sance and Reformation alike, Oxford and Cambridge
had definitely accepted the new order. By contact
with England, therefore, rather than with France,
could she be a partaker in the best results of the
revival of letters and religion.
In the deadly earnest which characterised all
their action, the Scottish Reformers set about the
work of reconstruction in the universities. The
scheme they proposed, as set forth in the Book of
Discipline (1560),3 proved abortive for the time in
1 J. B. Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, pp. 493, 496.
* Ibid. p. 631.
3 The following paragraphs from "TheBuke of Discipline" show how
comprehensive were the aims of its authors : — " Off necessitie thairfore
we judge it, that everie several! Churche have a Scholmaister appointed,
suche a one as is able at least to teache Grammer and the Latine toung,
\( the Toun be of any reputatioun. Yf it be Vpaland, whaire the people
convene to doctrine bot once in the weeke, then must eat hir the Reidar
or the Minister thair appointed, take cayre over the children and youth
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 233
every case, but their ideals had a most direct in-
fluence on the subsequent form of Scottish university
education. With regard to St. Andrews, which was
to be the most fully equipped of all the universities,
they laid it down that each of the three colleges
should have a distinct sphere of its own — that one
should provide a course in philosophy, the second a
course in law, and the third a course in divinity.
But it was in the choice of subjects that the uni-
versity was to provide, and the term allotted to
each, that we see the spirit in which the reform was
conceived, and the degree to which the reformers
had profited by the revival of letters.
In one circumstance they completely broke with
the tradition of the medieval universities, and
therefore with the tradition of St. Andrews itself.
By the arrangement they proposed, Latin grammar
and Latin literature were to have no place in the
curriculum of university studies. As is well known,
the medieval university was at once an elementary
school, a secondary school, and a university as well.
The slender provision for elementary and secondary
education in the various countries necessitated this
extended sphere of the university. It was one of
of the parische, to instruct them in thair first rudimentis, and especiallie
in the Catechisme, as we have it now translaited in the Booke of our
Common Ordour, callit the Ordour of Geneva, And farther, we think
it expedient, that in everie notable toun, and especiallie in the toun of
the Superintendent, be erected a Colledge, in whiche the Artis, at
least Logick and Rethorick, togidder with the Tongues, be read be
sufficient Maisteris, for whome honest stipendis must be appointed ; as
also provisioun for those that be poore, and be nocht able by them selfis,
nor by thair freindis, to be sustened at letteris, especialle suche as come
frome Landwart.
" Last, The great Schollis callit Universiteis, shall be repleanischit with
those that be apt to learnyng ; for this must be cairfullie provideit, that
no fader, of what estait or conditioun that ever he be, use his children at
his awin fantasie, especiallie in thair youth-heade ; but all must be com-
pelled to bring up thair children in learnyng and virtue."
234 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the largest benefits of the revival of learning that it
created and did much to supply the want of second-
ary education.1 The great secondary school at
Bordeaux, with which we have seen Buchanan
connected — that at Carpentras, over which another
Scotsman, Florence Wilson, for a time presided — the
famous school at Strasburg, remodelled by Sturm in
1537 — are examples of the efforts made by humanists
at once to relieve the universities, and to bring a
sound education within the reach of those whom
circumstances prevented from attending them.2 It
was therefore in the spirit of the most advanced
educationists that those who drafted the Book of
Discipline cancelled what had hitherto formed the
elementary portion of the Arts course at the uni-
versity. Had their project for establishing second-
ary schools throughout the country been carried into
effect, it is easy to see that the whole system of
education would thus have been placed on a broader
basis, and the result been the immensely quickened
intellectual life of the nation. It was doubtless to
Geneva and Strasburg that Knox and his associates
mainly owed their far-sighted views on national
education. Calvin's academy at Geneva was not
founded till 1559 ;3 but on a subject so near to the
hearts of them both, we may be sure that Knox and
Calvin must often have held serious discussion.
Sturm was as notable a figure in the religious as
in the scholastic world; and Knox and his coadjutors
could not but have heard of the radical reforms he
1 Cf. Schmidt, Vie de Sturm, p. 222.
2 Cf. Gaufr&s, Claude Baduel et la Reforme des Etudes au xvi' Siecle
(Paris, 1880).
3 Calvin's academy was based on the plan of Sturm's school at
Strasburg.
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 235
had so successfully carried out at the Strasburg
Gymnasium.
In the time of study prescribed for the various
degrees we likewise see the changed attitude as
regards the claims of life and duty that had been
wrought by the revolution of the sixteenth century.
By the arrangements of the medieval university,
the degree of doctor of divinity could not be taken
before the age of thirty-five ; by the arrange-
ment of the Book of Discipline a degree in divinity
could be taken by the age of twenty-four. The
term required for the doctorate in law was similarly
shortened. The object in thus curtailing the curri-
culum was clearly at once to prevent stagnation in
the university itself, and to let society have the
benefit of that superabundant energy which made
the more mature section of the students the torment
of the university authorities.1
The reforms proposed in the Book of Discipline
were thus far in the spirit of the most eminent
educationists of the time. Nevertheless, though
these reforms owed much to the labours of the
humanists, the spirit of humanism is conspicuously
absent in all the plans for the reconstruction of the
Scottish universities. According to these reforms,
all knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics was
to be gained at the secondary schools, that is to
Sa7> by the age of sixteen or seventeen, when the
student was supposed to be ripe for the university.
After a three years' curriculum in dialectic, mathe-
matics, and natural philosophy, he was expected to
1 As is well known, it was the more mature students who gave by
far the most trouble to the authorities of the medieval universities.
Of. Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, p. 131.
236 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
make choice of divinity, law, or medicine as the
profession he should eventually adopt. The peculiar
studies of the humanist were thus made the work
of boys ; and the universities being closed against
them, no sphere was left for scholars who should
devote their lives to the disinterested study of
antiquity. The truth is that humanism, in the
proper sense of the word, never found a home
in Scotland, as it did more or less in the other
countries of Europe. The true humanist of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was one who was
not only consumed by zeal for classical learning,
but who consciously or unconsciously exalted the
classical over the Christian tradition, and who re-
garded life with a kind of good-natured irony,
which made him shrink alike from asceticism and
rigour of creed. Of the last two notes of human-
ism, Scotland, whether for good or ill, learned
nothing from the Revival of Letters. Had the
Renaissance touched her before the Reformation
it might have been otherwise. But as it was, the
Renaissance came to her through the Reformation,
and theology dominated her schools from the mo-
ment of her new birth. In England, on the other
hand, the Italian Renaissance and the German
Reformation had an equal share in building up the
national life ; and the Elizabethan drama was made
possible not less than Puritanism and the English
Church. A Scotsman like Andrew Melville might
hold his own against any foreign scholar in the
matter of classical attainments ; but the light in
which he viewed these attainments was peculiar to
him as a Scotsman. Drummond of Hawthornden
is the only Scotsman of eminence in whom it is
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 237
possible to find the humanist even in his milder
form ; and Dnimmond all through his life felt
himself an alien in a' strange land. In the so-called
Moderatism of the eighteenth century we have for
the first time after the Reformation the somewhat
shabby manifestation of the less worthy side of
humanism.
The proposals of the Book of Discipline were
not carried into effect ; and during the next few
years the University of St. Andrews fell into a
state of the most wretched inefficiency. By an Act
of Parliament, 1563, commissioners were appointed
to investigate matters in that University, on the
ground that there was " waisting of the patrimony
of sum of the fundatiounis maid in the Collegeis of
the City of Sanctandros and uthers placis within
this Real me for the intertenement of the youth, and
that few sciences and specialize thay that ar maist
necessaire, that is to say the toungis and humanitie,
are in ane part not teicheit within the said Citie to
the greit detriment of the haill liegis of this Realme".
The most notable among the commissioners were
Moray, Maitland, and Buchanan. They were to
report the result of their inquiry the following year.
This they failed to do ; and the only memorial of
the Commission is a scheme for the reconstruction
of the three colleges, which has been attributed to
Buchanan himself.1 This scheme differs greatly
from that of the Book of Discipline, and is, perhaps,
to be regarded as a compromise necessitated by the
state of the time. Buchanan's plan, however, re-
sembles that of the Book of Discipline in assigning
1 This scheme is printed by Irving (Memoirs of Buchanan, Appen-
dix HI.) from a manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.
238 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
a separate function to each college. One of the
colleges was to be merely a secondary school, where
the " tongues and humanity " should be learned by
way of preparation for the studies of the other two.
As the scheme for a system of secondary schools had
fallen through, it is evident that such a college was
a simple necessity. In this college there were to be
at least six successive classes, in which Latin and
Greek were to be taught — Greek only in the three
highest classes. In certain of the rules for its
administration there are points which afford a pre-
sumption that this scheme is rightly attributed to
Buchanan. The rule for the Saturday disputations,
for example, is exactly that of the college at Bor-
deaux. So also is the rule that the pedagogue or
regent in charge of the bursars in their private
rooms was not to " ding his disciples," nor to give
distinct lessons of his own.
The second college was to supply a three years'
course of philosophy and medicine, and was to be
conducted by the Principal, aided by four regents,
and a " reader" in medicine. The third was to be
set apart for divinity and law — its entire staff to
consist of a principal, who was also to act as reader
in divinity, and a reader in law. If this draft of a
university scheme appear ludicrously inadequate, it
would be unjust to make it a reproach against
Buchanan. Things had not gone so prosperously
with the reformers as they had anticipated ; and
they had been taught by somewhat bitter experi-
ence that to draw up constitutions was one thing,
to embody them another. The plan of Buchanan,
therefore, is to be considered, not by any means as
expressing his ideal of what a university should be,
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 239
but merely what in the circumstances seemed to
him possible.
But not even the modest scheme of Buchanan
could be carried into effect ; and things at St.
Andrews grew gradually worse, in spite of the
ardent wishes of the reformers. " Eftir the first
zeall of the Reformation," says James Melville, who
speaks with personal knowledge of the University,
" regents and schollars carit na thing for divini-
tie . . . ; and for langages, arts, and philosophy they
haid na thing for all, bot a few buiks of Aristotle,
quhilk they lernit pertinatiouslie to battle and flyt
upon, without right understanding or use thairof."
To remedy this state of things the Parliament once
more appointed commissioners (1579) to report on
the University of St. Andrews. The powers given
to the commissioners show how complete the dis-
organisation had become. They were to visit and
consider the foundations, to remove all superstition
and Papistry, to displace all unqualified persons,
and to plant qualified persons in their places; to
redress the forms of teaching by more or fewer pro-
fessors, to join or divide the faculties, to annex
every faculty to such college as should be found
most proper, and generally to establish such order
as should most tend to the good of the common-
wealth. As the result of their inquiry, the com-
missioners drew up a scheme for reforming, or rather
reconstructing, the University. This scheme used
to be known as Buchanan's, he being the most dis-
tinguished scholar among the commissioners. It is
now generally spoken of as being mainly the work
of Andrew Melville. Buchanan and Melville would
doubtless be listened to with respect by their fellow-
240 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
commissioners ; but as all were men of weight and
experience, it may be regarded as the joint produc-
tion of the whole body.1 It certainly has little of
that sobriety of judgment which so pre-eminently
distinguished the plan of the Book of Discipline.
By this new scheme St. Salvator's and St. Leonard's
were both to be Arts colleges, the former being
additionally equipped with regents in law and
medicine. St. Mary's was to be exclusively a col-
lege of theology. The course of study prescribed
for this particular College bears the stamp of Mel-
ville's discursive mental habit, and ardent though
somewhat impracticable temper. Buchanan, with
his delicate exactness of mind, could hardly have
suggested an impossible course of study, which
could only have produced a race of sciolists. In
the College there were to be five professors, and the
course was to be four years. The first professor
was to teach Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac the first
year ; the second was to apply these languages to
the critical explanation of the Pentateuch and his-
torical books ; the third to apply them to the
prophetical books ; the fourth was to compare the
Greek Testament with the Syriac version, and the
fifth to lecture on systematic divinity. According
to James Melville, this theological school was pri-
marily intended as an " anti-seminary " to the
Jesuit seminaries ; 2 yet in the list of studies
Church History is not even mentioned. This plan
received the ratification of Parliament ; but, as
1 M'Crie (Life of Andrew Melville, vol. i. p. 246) says that " we
have direct evidence that Melville had the principal hand in drawing
up" this scheme. The proofs which he gives hardly justify such a
broad statement.
2 James Melville's Diary, p. 76 (ed. 1842).
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 241
might indeed have been expected from its one-
sided and impracticable character, did as little for
the University as its predecessors. When Buchan-
an entered St. Andrews, therefore, not one of these
many schemes had been carried into effect.
Buchanan was Principal of St. Leonard's from
1566 till 1570. Of the details of his life there, or
of the manner in which he discharged his duties,
nothing has come down to us. The few facts that
have been gleaned from the University records may
be briefly related.1 For the three successive
years after his appointment he was one of the
electors, assessors, and deputies of the rector ; and
in each case his name is entered with the addition,
" Poetarum nostrae memoriae facile princeps ".2
From November 1566 to November 1567 he was
one of the auditors of the quaestor's accounts. He
was never either rector or dean of the faculty of
Arts. "It is remarkable," says the writer from
whom these details are quoted, " that no students
are enrolled as belonging to St. Leonard's College
in 1566 and 1567, though the numbers both in
St. Mary's and St. Salvator's are considerable. In
1568 more students entered St. Leonard's than
even St. Mary's, which had generally been the most
numerously attended of all the colleges ; and in
1569 the numbers enrolled for the first time in St.
Leonard's were 24, while those at St. Mary's were
only 11, and those at St. Salvator's only 8." It is
1 This information was communicated by Dr. Lee to Irving (Memoirs
of Buchanan, Appendix iv.).
2 Florent Chrestien, in his translation of Buchanan's Jephthes, speaks
of Buchanan as "prince des poetes de nostre siecle". Henri Estienne,
also, as we have seen, in his edition of Buchanan's Psalms, speaks of him
as "poetarum nostri saeculi facile princeps ".
Q
242 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
natural to suppose that the great name of Buchan-
an may have had something to do with this pro-
sperity of St. Leonard's at the expense of its rivals.
There is a tradition to the effect that Buchanan
was in the habit of preaching during his stay in St.
Andrews.1 The origin of this tradition may have
been the divinity lectures, which by the original
foundation of St. Leonard's he was bound, as Prin-
cipal, to deliver every Wednesday and Friday. It
may also have originated in appearances Buchanan
may have made at the weekly exercise of "prophesy-
ing", which by the Book of Discipline was to be held
in every town " where schools and repaire of learned
men are ". Besides the ministers of religion, the
learned men of the neighbourhood were expected to
take part in this " exercise ", and as one of these
"learned men", Buchanan may have distinguished
himself in this new part.
While Buchanan was thus so closely connected
with the University of St. Andrews, he seems
always to have been keenly interested in that of
Glasgow, and never to have lost an opportunity of
doing it substantial good. In a document of the
latter University, of February 1578, it is stated, in
the name of Andrew Melville, principal of the Col-
lege, that a certain boon is conferred on one John
Buchanan for the " singular favour that ane honour-
able man George Buchanan teachar of our Sovereign
Lord in gude lettres hes borne and shawen at all
times to our College " .2 As Mary's grants to Glas-
gow were conferred before Buchanan's breach with
her, it is probable that he should have some credit
1 M'Crie, Life of Knox, Note A, Period Sixth.
- Munimenta Alme Universitatis Olasguensis, vol. i. p. 123.
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 243
in prompting her generosity. In the new founda-
tion of the College of Glasgow made by the town in
1572, by which Queen Mary's foundation was over-
thrown, Buchanan undoubtedly took an active part.
It has been suggested, in fact, that the Latin of the
deed may be the work of Buchanan. The opening
sentences have certainly all the freedom and im-
petuosity of movement that give his Latin style its
distinctive character. In the desire the writer
expresses also that Glasgow College may turn out
as many scholars as the Trojan horse turned out
heroes, we are reminded of the common saying
regarding Buchanan's old College of Ste. Barbe.
What is known as the Erectio Regia was, likewise,
in all probability, largely due to Buchanan's influence
with Morton. His name is attached to the deed
as " our dear Privy Councillor, George Buchanan,
Pensioner of Crossraguel, and Keeper of the Privy
Seal" .a A valuable gift of Latin and Greek books
gave further proof of Buchanan's good-will towards
the College of Glasgow.2
A humbler example of Buchanan's eager interest
in education also deserves to be mentioned. In
Scotland, as in other countries, the multiplicity of
Latin Grammars that followed the growth of the
new studies became a serious drawback to the
efficient teaching of the language.3 Accordingly, a
committee of four scholars, with Buchanan as presi-
dent, was appointed to consider the difficulty. They
decided that three of their number should compile
a^ Grammar which should supersede those in use.
1 Munimenta Alme Universitatis, vol. i. p. 103.
2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 407.
3 Cf. Schmidt, Vie de Sturm, chap. iii. part ii.
244 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Prosody was the part of the task assigned to
Buchanan. All three accomplished their tasks,
but the Grammar, though the joint production of
three of the most eminent scholars in Scotland at
the time, failed to serve the purpose for which it
was intended.
It was said in connection with Buchanan's
regenting in Ste. Barbe that the labours of the
practical teacher were probably little to his mind.
However this may be, he seems to have possessed
in rare degree the faculty of interesting and attract
ing youth. " Buchanan," says one, who as a young
man had been personally acquainted with him,
— " Buchanan was of such flexibility of mind that
with boys he became a boy ; he had alike the faculty
and the will to adapt himself to every time of life,
yet always in such a way as never to forfeit the
respect due to himself." l To the very end, when
broken in body and harassed in mind, he never lost
that most delightful trait of old age, the surest
proof of a genial and simply sincere character — a
sympathetic interest in the young. Of this trait
in his character we have almost pathetic evidence
in his relations with two young men, who seem
to have won his special affection. One of these,
Jerome Groslot, was the son of a man from whom
Buchanan had received much kindness during his
sojourn in France ; and the last letter written by
Buchanan that has come down to us was addressed
to Beza on his behalf. This letter deserves to be
1 •' Erat enim vir ille ea ingenii dexteritate, ut cum pueris repueras-
cere, et ad omnes omnium aetatum ustis modeste et sapienter sese
accommodate et posset et vellet."— Julius, Ecphrasis Paraphraseos G.
Ruchanani in Psalmos Davidis, epist. mine. Lond. 1620, 8vo. (Quoted
by Irving, p. 239.)
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 245
given in full, as it brings before us a side of his
character which the Detectio and such lines as his
epigram on Major are apt to make us forget. It is
dated Edinburgh, 15th July 1581, that is to say, a
year and two months before his death.
" Distracted though I am by manifold engage-
ments, and so poor in health that I have hardly
leisure for the ordinary duties of life, yet the depar-
ture of Jerome Groslot has deprived me of every
excuse for not taking up my pen. During my stay
in France, his father, a man of some eminence in
the State, overwhelmed me with kindness, and his
son while in this country has honoured me as a
second parent. Had I ignored the kind offices of
the one, or the pleasant intercourse of the other, or
your own unvarying good feeling towards me, I
should have justly incurred the gravest charge of
ingratitude. Let me say, however, that those who
best know the present state of my affairs would
readily have cleared me even from this charge. This
is, indeed, my best apology, that I am in simple truth
but the shadow of my former self. I have not even
the hope of forming new friendships, or of keeping
up the old. I speak thus the more freely, as you
will have the opportunity of learning from Groslot
how things really stand with me. Him I fancy I
need not recommend to you. His character and
acquirements will speak for themselves. Still, I
have obeyed custom, and have supplied him with
the accompanying testimonial. As to myself, since
I am no longer equal to the interchange of friendly
offices, I shall indulge in silence." The following
is the testimonial : — " Jerome Groslot, a youth of
Orleans, the bearer of this letter, though born in a
246 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
distinguished city, and of distinguished parents, is
yet much more notable by his misfortunes. In the
political confusions of his native country, and the
universal infatuation of its citizens, he lost his
father and his inheritance, and narrowly escaped
with life. Unable to live in safety at home, he
chose Scotland as his place of abode till the violence
of civil strife should somewhat abate. In the pre-
sent comparative lull, his private affairs calling for
his return, he has resolved to travel by way Jof
England, in order that, like Ulysses of old, he may,
as far as a passing visitor may, become acquainted
with the various manners and cities of men — cer-
tainly not the least important part of civil wisdom.
This journey, as I am justified in hoping from the
manner in which he profited by his previous one, he
will not make without large benefit to himself. While
in Scotland he lived not as a foreigner, but as our
fellow-citizen. To learning he has devoted himself
with the aim that it should not be merely a solace
in his misfortunes, but a means of livelihood for
himself and those dependent on him. In a case like
this, it is not for me to persuade or exhort you to
show kindness to a youth so full of promise. This
the whole tenor of your life and the bond of a
common faith demands, nay, constrains, you to show,
if you are to be worthy of yourself."
The other youth (whom Buchanan seems to have
regarded with still warmer feelings than Groslot)
was Alexander Cockburn, who died in 1564 at the
age of twenty-eight. Cockburn was a pupil of
Knox, who mentions him more than once in his
History. The dates of his birth and death are
wrongly given by Dempster. The right dates are
SERVICES TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 247
supplied by the mural brass at Ormiston.1 Buchanan
has given expression to his keen regret on the
death of Cockburn in two poems, which justify us
in believing that his early death was a loss to the
literature of his country. The best of the two
poems may be given here : 2—
Omnia quae longa indulget mortalibus aetas,
Haec tibi, Alexander, prima juventa dedit.
Cum genere et forma generoso stemmate digna,
Ingenium velox, ingenuumque animum.
Excoluit virtus animum, ingeniumque Camoenae
Successu, studio, consilioque pari.
His ducibus primum peragrata Britannia, deinde
Gallia ad armiferos qua patet Helvetios.
Doctus ibi linguas, quas Roma, Sion, et Athenae,
Quas cum Germane Gallia docta sonat.
Te licet in prima rapuerunt fata juventa,
Non immature funere raptus obis.
Omnibus officiis vitae qui functus obivit,
Non fas est vitae de brevitate queri.3
Another young Scot, whose meteoric career has
left a faint trail even to the present day, the
Admirable Crichton, made it a boast to the great
printer Aldus Manutius that he had been a pupil
of Buchanan. The boast is a tribute to the fame
of Buchanan ; but, like many other assertions of
Crichton, it is probably untrue. Crichton was
first enrolled as a student at the College of St.
Salvator's in 1570, at the age of ten. But Buchanan,
as we have seen, had no connection with St. Salva-
tor's, and it was in 1570 (probably in the beginning
1 See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv.
<J Epig. ii. 26.
3 These lines were engraved on a mural brass in the aisle of the old
church at Ormiston Hall. The brass still exists, and, according to David
Laing, is of the same date as that in St. Giles', Edinburgh, to the memory
of the Regent Moray, the inscription on which was also written by
Buchanan.
248 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of the year) that he gave up the principalship of
St. Leonard's to become tutor to King James.
Of Buchanan's relations with the most notable
of all his pupils, King James himself, a special
account must be given in a separate chapter.
CHAPTER XVI.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES — PUBLIC LIFE.
FOR about a year after his return to Scotland
Buchanan still continued to act as Principal of
St. Leonard's. Of that year the most important
event was the assassination of the Regent Moray,
in whom Buchanan lost one of his best friends, and
whose death, as affairs then stood, he deemed the
heaviest calamity that could have befallen Scot-
land. "Buchanan," says Randolph in a letter to
Cecil, " hath not rejoiced since the Regent's death." ]
We have seen from the poems Buchanan addressed
to Moray on what terms he stood with him. From
his History we also gather that he was occasionally
a guest at the Regent's house.2 When all allowance
is made for the partiality of friendship, and identity
of conviction on the deepest subjects, the estimate
Buchanan has given of Moray is probably nearer
the truth than any other that has come down to us.
What he says amounts to a panegyric ; yet there is
a careful precision in his words which gives the im-
pression that he is tracing a portrait, not drawing
on mere partial fancy. It is certainly the Moray
1 Calendar of State Papers (Scotland). In this letter Randolph
encloses Buchanan's epigram on the death of Moray.
2 Rer. Scot. Hist. lib. xix. p. 385.
24'.'
250 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of Buchanan who became the tradition of the
Scottish people.
The death of Moray was a heavy blow to the
King's party; but its leaders were resolved that Mary
should never again sit on the throne. Lennox was
appointed Moray's successor, and every step was
taken to give credit to James's government. At a
meeting of the Privy Council in March 1570, it was
resolved that provision should be made for the edu-
cation of the King, then only four years of age. As
the most eminent Scotsman in the scholastic world,
Buchanan was naturally thought of for this respon-
sibility. He was accordingly directed to leave
St. Leonard's, and thenceforward to devote himself
to the young King.1
It has abundantly appeared that all through
life Buchanan had a noble interest in the cause of
education. It was to be expected, therefore, that
he would enter on his new duties with the fullest
sense of the responsibility that would lie upon him
both to his pupil and the country. He was now
sixty-four years of age, and his infirmities made him
even older than his years. He was not, therefore,
in all respects specially fitted for the task imposed
upon him. Yet as the larger half of his literary
work, and, as he himself considered, the more im-
portant half, was produced after this date, it is clear
that the energy of his mind was in no degree abated.
1 Privy Council Records. The Act begins thus : " The Lords of
Secret Council and others of the nobility and estates, being convened
for taking order in the affairs of the Commonwealth, among other
matters being careful of the King's Majesty's preservation and good
education, and considering how necessary the attendance of Mr. George
Buchanan, Master of St. Leonard's College within the University of
St. Andrews, upon his Highness shall be, and it behoves the said Mr.
George to withdraw himself from his charge of the said College," etc.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 251
It is difficult to determine the exact share Buchanan
himself took in James's education. In the dedica-
tion of his History to the King he expressly states
that he had been prevented by incurable ill-health
from discharging that part in James's education
which had been assigned to him, and mentions
as one of his motives in writing his History that
it would in some degree make amends for the
unavoidable neglect. After 1578, when James
began to be made use of by the enemies of Morton,
his studies must have been somewhat interrupted.
By that date, also, Buchanan was in his seventy-
second year, and his chronic ill-health had almost
overpowered him. From James's fourth to his
twelfth year, however, we are justified in thinking
that Buchanan not only exercised a general super-
intendence over his education, but in certain branches
himself gave his pupil instruction.
In the school-room in Stirling Castle several
youths of noble family received their education
along with the young King. Among these were
the young Earl of Mar, Sir William Murray of
Abercairney (a nephew of the Countess of Mar),
Walter Stewart, afterwards Lord Blantyre and Lord
High Treasurer, and Lord Invertyle.1 The family
of Mar were the hereditary guardians of the King,
and on the death of the Regent Mar in 1572 the
care of James's person was intrusted to his widow
and his brother, Sir Alexander Erskine. David and
Adam Erskine, Commendators of Dryburgh and
Cambuskenneth, were appointed to superintend the
King's training in bodily exercises and accomplish-
ments. In the care of his studies Buchanan had
1 M'Crie, Life of Andrew Melville, vol. i. p. 105.
252 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
for assistant Peter, afterwards Sir Peter, Young,
of whom he speaks with cordiality and respect.1
Among Young's papers there is a sketch of a day's
work at a particular period of James's education."
After morning prayers he read Greek — the New
Testament, Isocrates, and Plutarch ; after breakfast
Cicero and Livy or modern history. The afternoon
was devoted to composition, and, when time per-
mitted, to arithmetic or cosmography, or logic and
rhetoric. It has been suggested that James's
Essay es of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie,
published in 1585, three years after Buchanan's
death, may have been themes written by him for
his teachers.3 The twelve " sonnets " that make up
these essayes are certainly near the level of a school-
boy's performance, and they have all the marks of a
theme written to order. But even if it were so, it
would be a mistake to conclude that Buchanan had
any disposition to give the vernacular an important
place in his pupils' studies. Like his friend Sturm,
Buchanan confidently believed that Latin must one
day be the universal language of Europe, and that
it was only a question of time when the common
people of each country should abandon their respec-
tive mother tongues. This, with the majority of
the humanists, they regarded as the necessary and
legitimate result of the revival of letters. Sturm's
end in education was what he called pietas literata
—true religion combined with thorough knowledge
of the Greek and Latin classics ; and for him the
mark of the highest culture was the command in
1 Epist. vi. and vii.
- Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 160.
3 M'Crie, Life of Andrew Melville, vol. i. p. 102.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 253
speech and writing of pure and elegant Latinity.1
There can be no doubt whatever that Sturm's ideal
was also the ideal of Buchanan. Though he was a
master of the Scottish dialect, and had Knox's
example before him, he yet deliberately chose to
write the History of his native country in the
language which he knew would give him all Europe
for his readers.2 With such training, and under such
masters, James, with his natural cleverness, could
hardly fail to make rapid progress in learning.
What the result was everybody knows. He became
" the only English prince who has carried to the
throne knowledge derived from reading or any con-
siderable amount of literature ".3 Late historians
have formed a somewhat higher opinion of James's
character and capacity than what had become the
traditional one ; 4 yet after the most generous con-
struction the fact remains that his mind was essen-
tially of that type which knowledge neither broadens
nor enriches.
While Buchanan impressed on James " that a
1 " Quid enim utilius in hac vita quara para mens et pura oratio,
quid jucundius quam elegans vita et elegans oratio ? " — Charles Schmidt,
Jean Sturm : Sa Vie et ses ouvrages, p. 247.
2 The following passage from Buchanan's History (p. 4) is interesting
as directly bearing on this subject : — " Quod ad me attinet, malim
ignorare veterem illam et anilem priscorum Britannorum balbutiem
quam dediscere quodcunque hoc est sermonis Latini, quod magno cum
labore puer didici. Neque aliud est, cur minus moleste feram priscam
Scotorum linguam paullatim intermori, quam quod libenter sentiam
barbaros illos sonos paullatim evanescere, et in illorum locum Latinarum
vocum amoenitatem succedere. Quod si in hac transmigratione in
alienam linguam, necesse est alteros alteris concedere, nos a rusticitate
et barbaria ad cultum et humanitatem transeamus : et quod nascendi
infelicitate nobis evenit, voluntate et judicio exuamus : aut, si quid
opera et industria possimus, id omne eo conferamus, ut linguam Gracani
et Latinam, quas orbis pars melior tanquam publicas recepit, pro viribus
expoliamus, et si quis ex contagio barbari sermonis adhaesit situs et
squalor, quoad fieri possit, extergeamus."
3 Mark Pattison, Life of Casaubon, p. 296.
4 Mr. Gardiner, for example. History of England, vol. i. p. 48 (1883).
254 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
king ought to be the most learned clerk in his
dominions", he .was far from thinking that mere
learning was a sufficient qualification for a good
ruler. In a poem addressed to his friend Sir
Thomas Randolph, the English resident in Scot-
land, he has told us in few words what to his mind
a good prince should be : " You often urge me to
paint for you what manner of king I should wish,
were God to grant one according to my prayer.
Here, then, is the portrait you want. In chief, I
would have him a lover of true piety, deeming him-
self the veritable image of highest God. He must
love peace, yet be ever ready for war. To the
vanquished he must be merciful ; and when he lays
down his arms he must lay aside his hate. I should
wish him to be neither a niggard nor a spendthrift,
for each, I must think, works equal harm to his
people. He must believe that as king he exists for
his subjects and not for himself, and that he is, in
truth, the common father of the State. When ex-
pediency demands that he shall punish with a stern
hand, let it appear that he has no pleasure in his
own severity. He will ever be lenient if it is con-
sistent with the welfare of his people. His life
must be the pattern for every citizen, his counten-
ance the terror of evil-doers, the delight of those
that do well. His mind he must cultivate with
sedulous care, his body as reason demands. Good
sense and good taste must keep in check luxurious
excess." l
Buchanan certainly lost no opportunity of im-
1 Epigram, ii. 27. With these lines of Buchanan it is interesting
to compare the epigram in which James dedicates his Basilikon Doron
to his son Henry.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 255
pressing on James this ideal of his future duties.
The three works in which he has set forth his concep-
tion of the true relation that should hold between
king and subject, he dedicated to him in plain-speak-
ing prefaces, which in after years James regarded as
little short of blasphemous. The dedication of the
Baptistes has already been noted. In the dedica-
tion of his History he says that he was largely
influenced in undertaking it by the desire that it
might tend to the profit of his Majesty. We shall
afterwards see from what point of view Buchanan
regarded the constitutional history of Scotland. At
present, it is sufficient to say that it ran counter
at every point to what was eventually James's own.
That Buchanan should have dedicated to James
his De Jure Regni, a tract which every crowned
head in Europe was bound to regard as the most
monstrous compound of treason and impiety, cannot
but provoke a smile in the light of what his pupil
was afterwards to become. What James came to
think of these well-meant efforts to make him a
man and a king, his manner of speaking of Buchanan
and his works very plainly showed. Yet it is clear
that Buchanan must have made an impression on
him which he never forgot. Of a certain personage,
James, when come to manhood, was wont to say
"that he ever trembled at his approach, it minded
him so of his pedagogue ". l He had a certain pride
also in the great name of his master. At the close
of a scholastic disputation at Stirling, a certain
English doctor who was present expressed his
admiration at the King's mastery of Latin. " All
the world, "he replied, "knows that my master,
1 Osborne, Advice to a Son, p. 19.
256 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
George Buchanan, was a great master in that
faculty. I follow his pronunciation both of the
Latin and the Greek, and am sorry that my people
of England do not the like ; for certainly their
pronunciation utterly spoils the grace of these two
learned languages. But you see all the university
and learned men of Scotland express the true and
native pronunciation of both." 1
Of Buchanan's bearing towards his pupil com-
pared with that of his assistant Young, we have an
interesting account in the Memoirs of Sir James
Melville. Melville had been a courtier and diplo-
matist all his life, and was at the opposite pole from
Buchanan in character and opinions. His words
regarding Buchanan, therefore, must be taken with
due reserves. In his account of Buchanan's inde-
pendent attitude towards his royal pupil, however,
we have seen that he is borne out by James's own
subsequent testimony. " My Lady Mar," Melville
writes, " was wise and sharp, and held the King in
great awe ; and so did Mr. George Buchanan. Mr.
Peter Young was more gentle, and was loath to
offend the King at any time, carrying himself
warily, as a man who had a mind to his own
weal by keeping of his Majesty's favour ; 2 but
Mr. George was a Stoick philosopher who looked
not far before him. A man of notable endowments
for his learning and knowledge of Latin poesie, much
honoured in other countries, pleasant in conversa-
1 Craufurd , History of the University of Edinburgh, p. 86 (Edin. 1808).
Ben Jonson informed Drummond of Hawthornden that he had told
King James "that his master Mr. George Buchanan had corrupted his
ear when young, and learnt him to sing verses when he should have read
them ".
- As the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland show, Young reaped
the benefits of his complaisance.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 257
tion, rehearsing on all occasions moralities short and
instructive, whereof he had abundance, inventing
where he wanted." The remainder of the passage
may be given, though it is not quite relevant :
" He was also religious, but was easily abused,
and so facile that he was led by every company
that he haunted, which made him factious in his
old days, for he spoke and wrote as those who were
about him informed him ; for he was become care-
less, following in many things the vulgar opinion ;
for he was naturally popular, and extremely re-
vengeful against any man who had offended him,
which was his greatest fault." With reference
to his general bearing towards James, we have
already seen that Buchanan had a natural faculty
for engaging the affection and admiration of youth.
If therefore he showed himself somewhat of a hard
taskmaster to James, we may conclude that his
bearing was influenced by what he saw in his pupil's
character and by the general attitude of those who
attended on him. As for Melville's concluding
words, they must also be set over-against the testi-
monies of those who understood Buchanan better
than himself.
Two curious glimpses into the school-room at
Stirling are given us by two very different observers
— the one by Killigrew, Elizabeth's resident in
Scotland, the other by James Melville, nephew of
the famous Andrew. Killigrew, it appears, had
paid a special visit to Stirling to see the young
King. James, he says, showed that he had greatly
profited by the instructions of his masters, made
" pretty speeches ", and " translated a chapter of
the Bible from Latin into French, and from French
R
258 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
into English extempore ". His preceptors Buchanan
and Peter Young, he adds, made the King dance
before him, which he did " with a very good grace".1
James Melville's visit was made in company with
his uncle, who wished to consult Buchanan regard-
ing the reforms he was contemplating in the College
of Glasgow. They found him engaged on his History
of Scotland. Regarding James, Melville is even
more enthusiastic than Killigrew. Speaking of the
King's performances before him he says that "it
was the sweetest sight in Europe that day for
strange and extraordinary gifts of ingine, judgment,
memory, and language ". " I heard him discourse,"
he adds, "walking up and down in the auld Lady
Marr's hand, of knawledge and ignorance to my great
marvell and astonishment." 2 Melville's wonder was
doubtless none the less great that the youthful
performer was a king. Still, after every abatement,
there can be little doubt that James was something
of a youthful prodigy both in attainments and
quickness of mind.
Two anecdotes of Buchanan's method of dealing
with his pupil are related, which, though character-
istic enough, do not rest on very satisfactory autho-
rity. We give them here for what they are worth.
The young Earl of Mar had a sparrow which his
royal playmate greatly coveted, and one day, in a
struggle between them for its possession, the sparrow
met its end.3 The affair was reported to Buchanan,
who, lending James a box on the ear, told him that
" he was himself a true bird of the bloody nest to
1 Calendar of State Papers (Scotland).
2 Melville's Diary.
3 As bearing on the truth of the story it should be said that Mar
was eight years older than James.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 259
which he belonged ". On another occasion Buchanan
was even more emphatic. A theme had just been set
for James on the conspiracy at Lauder Bridge, where
the Earl of Angus acquired the sobriquet of Bell-
the-Cat. After dinner young Mar and the King-
were so noisy as to disturb Buchanan at his studies.
He requested them to be quiet, but the noise went
on as before. Buchanan then told them that if they
did not attend to his words, he would use a more
forcible reminder. " But who will bell the cat ? "
asked the young prince. His master at once applied
such condign punishment that James's cries brought
the Countess of Mar to the spot. The Countess
demanded of Buchanan how he dared to lay his
hands on the Lord's anointed. Buchanan's reply,
though quite in the taste of the time, will not bear
a modern rendering.1
On the authority of Buchanan's nephew another
story is told which has a certain air of probability.
Buchanan, it seems, had discovered in James an
undue facility in complying with every request
that might be made of him — a trait, it may be
said, which signally showed itself in the favouritism
of his later years. Buchanan took the following
method of correcting this weakness. One day, pre-
senting two papers to James, he requested his signa-
ture. After a careless question, James did as he was
desired. One of the papers conferred on Buchanan
the sovereignty of the kingdom for fourteen days.
He at once assumed the part of king, much to the
astonishment of James, who began to think his
1 Mackenzie, Lives of Scots Writers, vol. iii. p. 180. Mackenzie is
always to be taken with large reservations. He says, however, that he
had the above two anecdotes from the Earl of Cromarty, whose grand-
father, Lord Invertyle, was Buchanan's pupil along with James.
260 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
master had lost his wits. On asking an explana-
tion, he was informed that it was with his own
consent that Buchanan was now king. James was
more amazed than ever, but Buchanan, presenting
the document with his own signature affixed, read
him a lecture on the folly of his conduct.
Was it the fault of Buchanan that James grew
into the man and king he did ? Of all scholars
Buchanan strikes us as the least of a pedant. His
age was pre-eminently the age of pedantry ; but in
Buchanan, the man is never for a moment lost in
the scholar. In spite of what we must regard as
his essentially artificial training, his fiery Celtic
nature proclaims itself in every page he wrote, in
every opinion he advocated. In religion and poli-
tics, also, he thought with the most advanced
section of the Protestant party. It is remarkable,
therefore, that in both points his pupil should have
grown into the very antithesis of himself — in his
learning a pedant, in his views of the prerogative of
kings an absolutist. It might be said, of course,
that Buchanan himself was too old and James too
young for the most fruitful relations of master and
pupil. Still, in the case of one of Buchanan's varied
experience, individuality of character, and natural
sympathy with the young, we might have expected
that he would have left some mark of himself even
on the narrow and perverse mind of James. The
case of Fdnelon and the young Duke of Burgundy
naturally occurs to us in connection with Buchanan
and James. It will be remembered that Fe'nelon,
by sheer tact and sympathetic insight, transformed
the Duke from something very like a wild beast
into a prince with the highest consciousness of
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 261
duty and the humanest of tempers. Fenelon had
undoubtedly the advantage of Buchanan in setting
about his task when his own powers of body and
mind were at their best. On the other hand, it
might seem from what we read of the inhuman
ferocity and vicious propensities of the Duke, that
Fenelon had the more difficult subject to deal with.
But Fenelon himself did not think so. " Lively
and sensitive natures," he says, "are capable of
going far astray ; passion and presumption drag
them on; but such natures have likewise great
resources, and often make recovery when they seem
to have gone furthest astray." In truth, no charac-
ter is less easily moulded than such as we know
James's to have been. He had by nature that
pragmatical self-conceit which is as triple brass
against the influence of other minds. Of spon-
taneity, of self-abandonment, of, in short, what we
call essentially qualities of soul, James was utterly
destitute ; and it is precisely in such qualities that
the teacher finds the springs by which he directs,
transforms, and elevates his pupil's nature.
Buchanan's position as tutor to the young King
gave him a real political importance in the eyes
of his contemporaries. During these years the
struggle between the Protestant and the Catholic
powers of Europe was passing through its sternest
crisis ; and it was matter of momentous concern to
both on which side James should eventually take
his place. In a few years he would possibly be
King of Great Britain and Ireland, and according
as he made his choice it seemed that the balance
would be turned. With Buchanan at the young
King's ear, the Protestants naturally hoped that he
262 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
would imbibe notions on religion and politics very
different from those of his mother. From many of
the leading Protestants, therefore, Buchanan re-
ceived letters emphasising the responsibility of his
position, and pointing out the vital importance of
James's future decision. A few of these letters
have been preserved, and they plainly show the
anxiety with which the situation was regarded.
Among them is one from Philip de Mornay,1 the
devoted servant of Henry of Navarre. Henry had
intrusted Mornay with a letter to Buchanan, in
which he called upon him to do what lay in his
power to make the young King think well of him.
Mornay, however, had fallen into the hands of
pirates, and the letter was lost. He therefore
communicates to Buchanan what he knew to be the
purport of Henry's message. It is of the highest
importance, he says, that there should be an under-
standing between Henry and the Scottish king.
At that moment (he is writing in 1577) it seemed
as if " all the Christian kingdoms of the world were
going headlong to destruction, and that impiety
and tyranny must overrun the earth ". Unless he
is deceived, however, Buchanan is educating a new
Constantine to save the world. It were in the
fitness of things, he adds, that the same region
which produced the world's first deliverer should
also produce the second. From another Huguenot,
Lema9on de la Fonteine, there are two letters in
French, urging Buchanan to do all in his power to
bring about a marriage between James and the
sister of Henry of Navarre. Scholars also, Beza
among the rest, send him their latest books as pro-
1 Duplessis-Mornay.
TUTOR TO KING JAMES. 263
pitiatory offerings to the young King. With Beza
Buchanan had begun a friendship in France many
years before — probably in Paris after Buchanan had
left Bordeaux. Both had evidently the highest
esteem for each other; but what is interesting to
note is that Beza, since Calvin's death the most
distinguished Protestant divine in Europe, writes
to Buchanan as an acknowledged superior, and dis
tinctly recognises him as of a genius higher than
his own.
Along with Peter Young, Buchanan was twice
(in 1572 and 1578) confirmed by decree of the
Privy Council in his office as "maister" to the
King.1 The fall of Morton in 1578, which put a
temporary end to the Regency, practically emanci-
pated James from his tutors. Till his own death
in 1582, however, Buchanan still nominally held
his post. In his Testament-dative he is described
as " precept our to ye Kingis majesty e the tyme of
his deceis " ; but his charge over James must prac-
tically have ceased two or three years earlier.
Besides his post as tutor to James, Buchanan
during his last years held other appointments,
which must have given him at least a certain social
status in his day. The election of Lennox as
Moray's successor in the regency was, of course,
favourable to Buchanan's fortunes. During Len-
nox's brief rule he was first made Director of
Chancery, and afterwards Keeper of the Privy Seal,
an office which he held till 1578. As Keeper of
the Privy Seal he was entitled to a seat in Parlia-
ment, a privilege of which he seems to have availed
himself. As member he served on one Commission
1 Privy Council Kecords.
264 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
which, had it effected its object, would have kept
green the memory of himself and his fellow-com-
missioners. The object of the Commission was " to
mak ane body of the civile and municipale lawis,
devidit in heidis conforme to the fassone of the law
Romane, and the heidis as thai ar reddy to be
brocht to the Parliament to be confirmit ".* It is
needless to say that the Commission proved an
abortive one. While he was thus both " maister "
to the King and Keeper of the Privy Seal, Buchan-
an would seem to have been no easier in money
matters than formerly. The following epigram to
Lennox both suggests this, and shows the familiar
terms on which he stood with that nobleman :—
AD MATTHAEUM LEVINIAE COMITEM, SCOTIAE PROREGEM.
Cum mihi quod donem nil sit, tibi resque supersit,
Accipe, cui dones officiosus opes.
Non ego sum nimius voti : ex tanto aeris acervo
Sufficient animo millia pauca meo.
Denique da quidvis, podagram modo deprecor unam :
Munus erit medicis aptius ilia suis (tuis ?).'2
" Since I am poor and you are rich,
What happy chance is thine !
My modest wishes, too, you know —
One nugget from your mine !
Only, whatever be your gift,
Let it not be your gout :
That, a meet present for your leech,
I 'd rather go without."
Lennox was succeeded by the Earl of Mar in
September 1571. Of Mar Buchanan speaks with
the highest respect, and in this good opinion he is
supported by men of all parties in the State. Mar
was Governor of Stirling Castle, and hereditary
guardian of the King, so that Buchanan in his
1 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 40.
8 Epig. iii. 19.
PUBLIC LIFE. 265
duties as tutor to James must have seen much of
him. The new Regent died after little more than a
year's tenure of office. In a short poem, Buchanan
commemorated his virtues, and in a strain which is
not that of mere conventional panegyric. The
truth of the last two lines is borne out by other
testimony besides Buchanan's. "This," he says,
" is peculiar to himself, that in the course of a long
life, envy and hatred have no charge with which to
reproach him." 1
Mar was followed in the regency by the Earl of
Morton, a man of far more masterful character, but
unscrupulous even for that age in his dealings with
his enemies. To Morton Buchanan was not so
favourably disposed as to the three previous Re-
gents. With the religious party to which he be-
longed, he disapproved of Morton's attitude towards
the Church. But his chief ground of opposition
was the Regent's persistent attempts to gain pos-
session of the King. It was, indeed, mainly by the
advice of Buchanan, and Alexander Erskine, the
Governor of Stirling Castle, that James was induced
to support the party opposed to Morton, which
brought about his temporary abdication in March
1578.2 A council of twelve was then formed for
the direction of the King, Buchanan being one of
its extraordinary members. The council was of
short duration, as by April of the same year Morton
was again in power. During Morton's second
regency Buchanan still continued in the Privy
1 Miscell. xxv. Knox was of a different opinion. — History, vol. ii.
p. 128.
2 So at least says Sir James Melville : " Be whais [Buchanan's] advyse
and counsaill his majeste was easely movit to depoise the Regent out of
his office."
266 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Council, though in 1578 he had resigned the Seal
to his nephew, Thomas Buchanan. Of the two
Councils which met in Morton's second regency,
Buchanan occasionally attended the first, but at the
second he seems never to have appeared. In the
first Council, Buchanan, assisted by Peter Young,
acted as interim secretary during the absence of the
Commendator of Dunfermline on an embassy to
England.1
During this period of Scottish history the agents
of Elizabeth were especially busy in Scotland, her
policy being to make sure of a strong party in that
country which she could always have at her dis-
posal. With this in view her agents kept Cecil
informed as to the persons upon whose support she
could count, or whose support it was politic to gain.
In July 1578 two lists were transmitted to Cecil,
one containing the names of Biencontents, the other
those of Malcontents. In the latter, Buchanan's
name appears with the explanatory addition that he
is a Malcontent "in respect of the Erie Morton's
cominge againe into the king's favour".2 The follow-
ing year Cecil had three other lists sent to him, the
first, " of persons who were commended by the Earl
of Morton, when he was Regent, as most meet to
be entertained " ; the second, " of persons who were
also fit to have entertainment, though they were not
recommended by, the Eegent " ; and the third, " of
persons who were not commended by the Regent, yet
by others thought meet to be entertained ". In the
last list appear the names of " Mr. George Buchanan,
a singular man", and of Peter Young, " another tutor
1 Privy Council Records.
- Chalmers, Life of Euddiman, p. 340.
PUBLIC LIFE. 267
to the King, specially well affected, and ready to per-
suade the King to be in favour of her majestye 'V In
still another list are to be found " the names of such
as are to be entertained in Scotland by pensions out
of England". In this list there are twenty-four
names in all, the names of the Regent Morton and
six earls coming first. Opposite Morton's name is
placed the sum of £500 ; against those of the earls,
in some cases £200, and in others £100. Oppo-
site Buchanan's name is placed £100, and opposite
that of Peter Young £30.2 The list has a certain
interest, as showing Buchanan's relative political
importance in the eyes of the astute agents of
Elizabeth. Whether the pensions were actually paid,
or whether the intended beneficiaries even knew of
these purposes in their favour, we have no means of
knowing. But even had Buchanan accepted such a
pension, it would be absurd to consider it any serious
blot on his scutcheon. The habit of receiving
pecuniary assistance from England had, in fact,
during the sixteenth century become an accepted
condition of public life in Scotland.
From these notices it will be seen that Buchanan
was not among the leading political figures of his
time. This is indeed conclusively shown by the place
he occupies in the later Histories of Scotland. While
the names of Knox and Andrew Melville are written
large in all these Histories, that of Buchanan but
rarely occurs, and then only as that of a mere public
servant. At no time of his life, as we believe, were
the instincts of Buchanan those of the practical
politician; but even had he possessed these instincts,
1 Chalmers, Life of Ruddiman, p. 342.
2 Ibid. p. 343.
268 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the advanced age at which he returned to Scotland,
as well as his chronic ill-health, must have debarred
him from taking a prominent part in public affairs.
In the religious strifes of his last years, the struggle
between Presbytery and Episcopacy, he seems to
have taken no part. But the same reasons which
debarred him from politics sufficiently account for
his not taking his stand either with or against
Andrew Melville.1
1 That his sympathies were with Melville, however, there can be no
doubt ; though he would certainly have disapproved of much that
Melville said and did. In his History he has the following passage
regarding bishops : " Creditur idem Palladius primus Episcopos in Scotia
creasse. Nam ad id usque tempus, Ecclesiae absque Episcopis per
monachos regebantur, minore quidem cum fastu et externa pompa, sed
majore simplicitate et sanctimonia." — Eer. Scot. Hist. lib. v. p. 79.
CHAPTER XVII.
BUCHANAN'S POLITICAL OPINIONS — THE DE JURE
REONI APUD SCOTOS.
BY his dialogue De Jure Regni apud Scotos (Con-
cerning the Rights of the Crown in Scotland)
Buchanan holds a distinct place in the development
of political thought in Britain. The dialogue is
far indeed from being a material contribution to the
subject it professes to discuss, yet its history con-
clusively proves that till the Revolution of 1688 its
influence was seriously dreaded by the successive
Governments of the country. In 1584, five years
after its publication, and two years after Buchanan's
death, this dialogue and his History of Scotland
were condemned by Act of Parliament, and every
person possessing copies commanded to produce
them within forty days, that they might be purged
of the " offensive and extraordinary matters " they
contained.1 In 1664 the Privy Council of Scotland
issued a proclamation prohibiting all subjects from
translating and circulating copies of a manuscript
translation of the dialogue, and in 1688 this order
was repeated.2 In 1683, also, the University of
1 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 296.
2 Wodrow, Hist, of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, vol. i.
p. 218. Edin. 1721-2, two vols. fol.
269
270 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Oxford publicly burned the political works of
Buchanan, Milton, Languet, and other writers of
their way of thinking.1 These public censures suffi-
ciently prove the importance of Buchanan's tract in
the clash of political strife during the century that
followed his death. During that century his repu-
tation seems to have increased rather than dimi-
nished. His word, therefore, as that of the most
illustrious of British scholars, could not be slighted
even by the most distinguished supporters of the
royal prerogative. Moreover, the dialogue itself,
though of little value as a political treatise, yet by
the elegance and force of its Latin style was well
fitted to win readers in an age when Latin was
still the language of learned discussion.
Immediately on its publication it was assailed
by writers of the opposite school from Buchanan ;
and we may say that till the Revolution of 1688
the attacks on Buchanan's motives and opinions
grew rather more than less bitter. In his own
country the controversy was carried on into the
following century with even increased asperity, his
opponents seriously maintaining that it was impos-
sible he could have been an honest man and have
advocated the political opinions he did.2 These
opinions, they said, were, in the first place, new to
Scotland ; secondly, they were false ; and lastly,
they were brought forward simply to justify the
unconstitutional proceedings against Mary. With
1 Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 261 note.
a Ruddiman, in his later years, and after the failure of the '45, was
unsparing in his denunciation of the man whose works he had edited.
Chalmers, also, in his Life of Ruddiman (1794), leaves the humanists
themselves behind in the scurrility of his abuse. But, like Euddiman
(though out of due time), he was likewise a rabid Jacobite.
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 271
the knowledge we now possess of the development
of political ideas in Europe we see that such
controversies are entirely beside the mark. By his
natural affinities, and by every condition of his life
and training, .it was impossible that Buchanan in
the sixteenth century could have adopted other
political theories than he did.
Buchanan's main positions in the De Jure Regni
are, that kings exist by the will and for the good of
the people, that they may be brought to account
for misgovernment, and that under certain circum-
stances tyrannicide is justifiable. But before giving
a more detailed account of the dialogue, it is neces-
sary that we should mark the conditions out of
which it sprang. Humanism had undoubtedly its
own influence in this as in every other of Buchanan's
productions ; but other currents meet in the De
Jure Regni, which distinctly stamp it as a typical
product of the time.
Among the ideas the humanists had gained from
the study of antiquity was that of the paramount
importance of liberty to the true growth and
happiness of men. The passages they admired
above all others in the Greek and Latin writers were
those which proclaim the dignity of free citizenship
and denounce the evils of tyranny. Their favourite
heroes were such characters as Brutus and Timoleon,
whom they extolled as personages a country should
rejoice to have produced. Much of the rhetoric of the
humanists on this subject was doubtless the mere
echo of the writers they admired, yet the political
conditions of their own day gave the reality of
striking contrast to the tradition of the ancient
republics. It was in large measure the sugges-
272 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
tion of this contrast that inspired the biting
sarcasms of Erasmus at the expense of contemporary
princes.
But, independently of humanism, medieval
Europe bequeathed its own legacy of opinion as to
the claims of the people and the prerogatives of
princes. From the rise of the various Christian
powers in Western Europe this subject engaged the
best minds of each successive generation. The
opinion which all along had the approval of the
Church was that all power comes from God, and
that as the Pope was God's vicegerent, supremacy
over kings of necessity pertains to the Church,
which alone had the power to loosen the bonds of
allegiance. This twofold conception of the sanctity
of kings and their responsibility to God alone —
that is, to the Church as God's representative — is
expressed with great clearness as early as the sixth
century in an address by Gregory of Tours to King
Chilperic. " O king," he says, " if any one of us
should desire to stray from the path of justice, thou
canst correct us ; but if thou shouldst go astray,
who will arraign thee ? We address ourselves to
thee, it is true ; but thou hearkenest only if thou
wilt. Against thy will who will condemn thee,
unless it be He who is justice itself ? " This was
the view approved by the Church, and received by
men so little subservient to authority as Gregory ;
but an unbroken line of thinkers did not hesitate
to assert that the people is the source of all kingly
power, and that princes exist solely by the will and
for the good of their subjects. It is the essence
of the Christian doctrine that it gives the indivi-
dual a dignity and importance he never had under
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 273
Paganism. That a whole people, therefore, should
submit to one arbitrary will, implied the forfeiture
of all that raises man above the beasts. A few
quotations will show how strongly these views were
held by many of the most distinguished teachers
of the Middle Ages.1
" Kings are called kings," says Isidore of Seville
in the sixth century, " because they do well. They
retain the name so long as they act rightly ; when
they act amiss, they lose it." : In the eighth century
a certain bishop of Verona declared " that all men
are naturally equal, and that men ought not to
recognise inequality, which has often the result of
placing the best under the dominion of the worst ".
In the middle of the tenth century free notions
regarding the divine origin of kings seem not to
have been uncommon. " I know some persons
among our contemporaries," says a writer of that
century, " who believe that royalty has its origin,
not from God, but from men ignorant of God,
accustomed to live by plunder, treasons, and
murders — covered, in short, with every kind of
crime, who at the beginning of the world had, by
the inspiration of the devil, the blind ambition and
the unspeakable temerity to lord it over other men
who were their equals." In the twelfth century
John of Salisbury speaks in words that might pass
for Buchanan's : " When he is the true image of God,
the king should be loved, honoured, obeyed ; when he
is the image of all that is evil, he should in most
1 For the quotations in the following paragraph I am indebted to a
singularly interesting paper (La Royaute frangaise et le Droit populaire
d'apres les Ecrivains du Moyen Age) in M. Jourdain's Excursions
historiques et philosophiques a travers le Moyen Age.
2 " Reges a recte agendo vocati sunt, ideoque recte faciendo, regis
nomen tenetur, peccando amittitur."
S
274 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
cases be put to death." In the thirteenth century
Thomas Aquinas taught that the end of government
is the good of the community, that governments are
not instituted for the personal satisfaction of those
who are at their head, but for public utility, that
kings are the shepherds of their people, and that a
good shepherd thinks before everything of the good
of his flock. Duns Scotus, however, goes much
further than this, and boldly represents the people
as the sole source of political power. In a treatise
written about the year 1324 by Marsilius of Padua,
the rights of the people are emphasised with a bold-
ness and clearness that might have satisfied Knox
and Buchanan themselves. One sentence will show
the length to which this writer, who at one time
was rector of the University of Paris, was prepared
to go. " Est enim multitude dominus major." " Of
people and prince, the former is the superior power."
One quotation more may be given, and it is the
most remarkable of all. Gerson, Chancellor of the
University of Paris, from whom the quotation is
taken, was one of the most notable figures in the
intellectual world of his day ; and from him, per-
haps, more than any other, John Major learned
the political opinions which have gained for him the
name of " the first Scottish radical ".2 " If kings,"
says Gerson, " fail in their duty towards their sub-
jects, if they conduct themselves unjustly, above all
if they persist in their misgovernment — this is
exactly a case for applying the law of justice, that
it is permissible to repel force by force. Has not
1 " Imago deitatis princeps amandus, venerandus est et colendus ;
tyrannus, pravitatis imago, plerumque etiam occidendus."
2 The phrase is Professor Masson's.
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 275
Seneca said that there can be no more acceptable
sacrifice to God than a tyrant ? " Neither Buchanan
nor Milton went beyond this.1
These citations conclusively prove that it was
not left to the humanists to make known the prin-
ciples on which free States are based. Before the
sixteenth century it is clear that educated men. were
perfectly familiar with doctrines that afterwards
came to be identified with the Huguenots of France
and the Puritans of England. How widespread
these doctrines were, is signally proved by the
speech, so often quoted, of Philippe Pot before the
French States-General in 1484 : " As history relates,
and as I have heard from my fathers, it was the
people who first created kings by their suffrage,
specially preferring men who surpassed others in
virtue and capacity. Each people chose a king for
his usefulness."
But these bold notions as to the inherent right
of a people to govern itself, of necessity remained
simple theory till the sixteenth century. So long
as the Western nations owned universal allegiance
to the Pope, the fundamental principles on which
society rests could never be the subject of practical
discussion. For the mass of the people the king and
his prerogative made as much a part of the system
of nature as the sun and the moon. The fiery spirits
who led the great Protestant schism were made to
feel that this habit of mind, produced by centuries of
unquestioning submission to authority, could not be
transformed in a day.2 But it was the sixteenth
1 It will be remembered that Milton translates Seneca's verse and
thus stamps it with his approval.
2 In the present age the following sentences from Buchanan's De Jure
Regni strike us somewhat oddly : " Reliqua est imperita multitude,
276 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
century that converted these theoretical discussions
into burning questions of conduct and policy. This
fact may, of course, be broadly set down as the
result of the generally awakened intelligence of
Europe; yet a few special causes stand out as so
powerfully operative that they deserve particular
mention.
During the latter part of the fifteenth century
there had been a rapid movement towards absolute
power on the part of all the great princes of Europe.
In the sixteenth century this tendency still con-
tinued, and an actual rivalry arose between the
rulers of the various countries as to which could
most completely override the will of his people.1
The Prince of Machiavelli reduced to a system the
means by which a ruler might attain the end at
which all were aiming. Such men as Erasmus and
More, inspired alike by the Christian and the classical
tradition, had, before the publication of The Prince,
given the most forcible expression to their views of
the duties of kings to their subjects. But the
appearance of The Prince still further excited the
alarm and indignation of thinking men throughout
Europe. The fame of Machiavelli's book is proved by
the numberless references to it in the writings of the
century. But the most significant tribute to the
widespread alarm it produced is the fact that Bodin
wrote his great work De Republicd expressly to
counteract its teaching.2 It may be taken also as a
quae omnia nova miratur, plurima reprehendit, neque quicquam rectum
putat, nisi quod ipsa aut facit, aut fieri videt. Quantum enim a con-
suetudine majorum receditur, tantum a justo et aequo recedi putat."
1 During his visit to Francis i. in 1539, Charles v. expressed his
admiration and envy at the French king's control over his people.
2 "Peu d'e"crivains ont exerce" une action plus directe [than Machia-
velli], plus profonde sur les homines et sur les e've'nements. C'est a le
combattre que nous verrons s'appliquer Bodin." — Baudrillart, J. Bodin
et son Temps (Paris, 1853), p. 17.
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 277
curious proof how wide and deep the evil repute of
Machiavelli had gone, that his name, corrupted into
Mitchell Wylie, was in Scotland applied to Maitland
of Lethington.1
But it was the great Protestant revolt from
Rome that brought to direct issue the question of
the mutual relations of king and people. From
the very beginning of that revolt it was felt on
both sides that the old relations could no longer
hold if Luther should succeed. It was therefore
the policy of the supporters of Rome to hold out
the constant threat that Lutheranism meant not
only defection from the Church but universal
anarchy. The excesses of Anabaptism and the
Peasants' War gave them as strong a case as they
could have wished ; and in France especially, during
the first half of the sixteenth century, the dread of
a social cataclysm undoubtedly did much to arrest
the movement towards reform.
On the other hand, the reformers themselves had
equally soon to recognise the new position in which, as
subjects, their defection from Rome had placed them.
In a country where, being in a minority, their re-
ligious views should not be tolerated; or where, being
in a majority, the ruler should interfere with the duty
they owed to God — what in either of these cases was
the line of conduct they ought to pursue ? The
leaders of the Protestant party fully realised the
gravity of their position. The charge of extreme
counsels has been so constantly brought against them,
that the following testimony of de l'H6pital to
1 The name Mitchell Wylie appears in the Memorials of Knox's
servant, Kichard Bannatyne. Wylie, of course, is wily. There is
frequent reference to Machiavelli in the Scots vernacular literature of
the time.
278 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
their moderation will surprise many. " Among all
those," says this very highest authority, " who have
gone over to Protestantism, there is not one who
wishes to unsettle the supremacy of the king ; for
this is manifestly against the principles of their
religion." l That this could be said of the Hugue-
nots after the civil war, and after St. Bartholomew,
is certainly a singular tribute to their great legislator
Calvin.
In Germany, the political question was not thrust
on the Reformers in the direct and critical form it
took in France and Scotland. Luther had to face
the orgies of Anabaptism and the revolt of the
peasants as the result of his breach with Home ; but
neither of these cases necessitated a full and precise
definition of the relations of ruler and subject.
As Ranke has said : " In Germany the Protestant
churches were founded under the protection, the
immediate influence, of the reigning authorities, and
their form was naturally determined by that circum-
stance."
In France, however, the new opinions had to
create for themselves a set of conditions for which
no provision had hitherto been made in any Christian
State. And it is to be remembered that those who
held these opinions claimed not only sufferance,
but the liberty of propagandism. How to provide
this liberty and yet not seriously endanger the
central authority of the State was the delicate
question which Calvin had to solve in his Institutes
of the Christian Religion. That he did not solve it
is simply to say that a people cannot be fitted with
a ready-made constitution, but must grow into it
1 Baudrillart, J. Bodin et son Temps, p. 67.
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 279
by a natural process of adaptation. It was not till
after three centuries that the question which en-
gaged Calvin settled itself by the unconscious growth
of educated opinion. Calvin taught that under no
circumstances — always excepting where his religious
faith was concerned — was the individual citizen jus-
tified in resisting his prince. The advisers of the
prince, however, and any representative body in the
State, Calvin did not forbid from withstanding the
tyrannical exercise of authority.1 It is evident that
this position completely covers the entire policy of
the Protestant party in Scotland in their proceed-
ings against Mary. As the religious struggle grew
fiercer, and at the same time more equal, the followers
of Calvin were forced into bolder statements of the
rights of the people against tyrants ; yet in the
most extreme statements of their views they never
forgot that obedience to the State is incumbent on
every man professing to be a follower of Christ.
Calvin's Institutes appeared in 1535 ; but as the
century went on, the great question of the true
limits of the allegiance of the subject became more
and more pressing, and more and more difficult
of satisfactory definition. In France, the horrible
treatment of Bordeaux by the Constable Mont-
morency for its refusal to pay the gabelle, gave a
formidable impulse to free opinions regarding the
1 " Neque eniin, si ultio Domini est effrenatae dominationis correctio,
ideo protinus demandatam nobis arbitremur : quibus nullum aliud
quam parendi et patiendi datum est mandatum. De privatis hominibus
semper loquor. Nam si qui nunc sint populares rnagistratus ad moder-
andam regum libidinem constituti, adeo illos ferocienti regum licentiae
pro officio intercedere non veto." — Institutio Christianae Beligionis,
lib. iv. chap. xx.
"At vero in ea, quam praefectorum imperiis deberi constituimus,
obedientia, id semper excipiendum est, iino in primis observandum, ne
ab ejus obedientia nos deducat, cnjus voluntati regum omnium vota
subesse," etc. — Ibid.
280 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
rights of the Crown.1 In the year of the revolt of
Bordeaux, 1548, "in face of the scaffolds erected in
the public places of the towns of Aquitaine," the
celebrated Contr Un of la Boe'tie, the friend of
Montaigne, was written, in which it was maintained,
in a torrent of youthful eloquence, that for the many
to be the slaves of the one was a disgrace to the
dignity of human nature. This pamphlet was not
published till many years after ; but the fact that
it was written before the civil war and St. Bar-
tholomew is but one proof among many that the
boldest opinions regarding the rights of the people
were in the air long before these events.
The sketch of opinion that has just been given
applies in the first place to France ; but the politi-
cal and intellectual bond between France and Scot-
land was for centuries so close that we need not
wonder to find in the one the ideas and aspirations
of the other. Before Buchanan, the two writers of
note who dealt with the rights of the Crown in
Scotland were Major and Boece. As Major's His-
tory was published in 1521, and that of Boece in
1527, neither was influenced by the great political
and religious impulses of the sixteenth century.
As has already been said, Major remained through
life a schoolman pure and simple. His intellectual
interests as well as his medieval Latin put this
beyond question. But he was a schoolman in the
line of those independent thinkers whose political
views have been cited above. We have seen how
he was regarded in Paris as one of the champions
of the privileges of the University against the
Pope. His opinions regarding the true source of
1 Martin, Histoire de France, vol. viii. livre iv.
HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. 281
authority in a nation are equally bold and hetero-
dox. Everything, indeed, that Buchanan himself
has said regarding the Royal prerogative in Scot-
land, Major said before him with the quaint blunt-
ness and directness that mark his style. That his
political opinions were really abiding convictions is
proved by the fact that he expresses himself with
the same decision in his History and hi his purely
scholastic writings. In his History we have such
sentiments as these : " As it was the people who
first made kings, so the people can dethrone them
when they misuse their privileges." Elsewhere he
is still bolder, in the statement of his views as to
the measure that should be dealt to bad kings.
" As it is for the benefit of the whole body," he
says, " that an unhealthy member is removed, so is
it for the welfare of a State that a tyrant should be
cut off." This is as explicit a statement on the
subject as anything we find in Knox or Buchanan.
Though a contemporary of Major, Boece be-
longed to the Renaissance rather than to Scholas-
ticism. Bis Latin style and his whole manner of
conducting his narrative is so distinct from that of
Major, that the difference implies not only an
essentially distinct type of mind, but essentially
distinct intellectual ideals. Yet Boece's political
1 The following sentences will illustrate Major's Latin style as well
as his political opinions : "Populus liber primo regi dat robur, cujus
potestas a toto populo dependet ; quia aliud jus Fergusius primus rex
Scotiae non habuit : et ita est ubilibet et ab orbe condito erat cominu-
niter. Si dicas mihi ab Henrico Septimo Henricus Octavus jus habet,
ad primum Anglorum regem ascendam, quaerendo a quo ille jus regni
habuit ? et ita ubivis gentium procedam." — De Gestis ticotorum, lib. iv.
cap. xvii.
2 " Cum licentia totius corporis veri tollitur hoc membrum ; etiam
facultate totius corporis mystici, tu, tamque minister comitatis, potes
hunc tyrannum occidere, dum est licite condempnatus." — Quoted by
M'Crie, Life of Knox, vol. i. (Note D).
282 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
philosophy is identical with that of Major, though
his ideas of liberty were drawn, not from the school-
men, but from the classical writers, whom he had
evidently studied in the true spirit of the humanists.
He does not present his political teaching in the
dogged, logical form of Major : his notions regard-
ing popular rights are wrought into his narrative
and quietly taken for granted. Thus, when he
relates how Theseus, one of the legendary kings,
was dethroned and exiled for misgovernment, he
makes no comment on this exercise of popular
authority, but seems to think that his readers will
take it as a matter of course. Yet there is so little
uncertainty about his opinions, that Bishop Nicol-
son could say that " Boece's principles in polity
were no better than those of Buchanan".1
From what has been said, it abundantly appears
that the political doctrines laid down by Knox in
his famous interview with Mary had, in truth, the
support of many of the ablest doctors of her own
Church, and that so far from being new or peculiar
to Scotland, they had their advocates in all the
kingdoms of Europe from the very beginning of
the Middle Ages. Though they have been quoted
so often, the sentences may once more be given in
which Knox lays down his doctrine of the people's
right of resistance to bad rulers. " Do you main-
tain," asked Mary, " that subjects having power
may resist their princes ?" " Most assuredly," said
Knox, " if princes exceed their bounds ; God hath
nowhere commanded higher reverence to be given
to kings by their subjects than to parents by their
children ; and yet, if a father or mother be struck
1 Scottish Historical Library, p. 37 (London, 1736).
DE JURE REGNI. 283
with madness, and attempt to slay his children,
they may lawfully bind and disarm him till the
frenzy be overpast. It is even so, Madame, with
princes that would murder the children of God,
who may be their subjects. Their blind zeal is
nothing but a mad frenzy, and therefore to take
the sword from them, to bind their hands, and to cast
them into prison, till they be brought to a more sober
mind, is no disobedience against princes, but just
obedience, because it agreeth with the word of God."
The events of the few years that followed this
interview were the practical commentary on this
teaching of Knox. In accordance with that teach-
ing, a large number of Mary's subjects thwarted her
government by all the means in their power, and hi
1567 dethroned her on the plea that she had for-
feited the allegiance of her people. It was to meet
the animadversions on these doings of his country-
men that Buchanan wrote his De Jure Regni. So
far, and so far only, the dialogue is to be regarded
as the product of immediate temporary circum-
stance. As far as its political theories are concerned,
these were an inheritance that lay at his hand.
The dialogue was published in 1579 ; but it had
been written several years before. Writing to a
correspondent in 1579, he says that he sends him
the De Jure Regni, written in turbulent times, but
now given to the world after a moderate period,
when the tumult was subsiding, and men's ears had
grown accustomed to opinions of the kind it con-
tained.2 In his dedication to King James, he also
1 Knox, History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 282 (Laing's Edition).
The above modern rendering is that given by Tytler, History of Scotland,
vol. iii. chap. vi. p. 154 (Edin. 1873).
2 Epist. xxiv.
284 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
says that it was written when Scottish affairs were
in a state of unsettlement, and that his object was
to put before his readers the origin and limits of
the Royal prerogative in Scotland. The book, he
continues, had served a good purpose at the time,
by silencing the clamour of those who had protested
against the existing arrangement in the State ; but
as affairs had become more settled, " he had dedi-
cated his arms to public concord ". In looking
through his papers he had lately come upon his
dialogue, and it occurred to him that its publication
might be of real service to James himself, in show-
ing him in true colours what a king of Scotland
should aim at being.
The book must therefore have been written
shortly after the return of the Commissioners from
London, possibly even before the assassination of
Moray in 1570. Its leading motive is identical
with that of Milton in his Defence of the People of
England — the justification of his countrymen in
the eyes of Europe. Dryden, indeed, goes so far
as to accuse Milton of having stolen his Defence
from Buchanan.1 But though the motive and
teaching of both is the same, and though
Milton had certainly read Buchanan's dialogue,
this charge is irrelevant. It is interesting to note,
however, how keenly both resent foreign criticism
on their countrymen, as at once insolent and un-
generous. With Buchanan this is the first and
last word of his treatise.
The book is in the form of an imaginary dialogue
between Buchanan and Thomas Maitland, a younger
brother of Secretary Maitland. Young Maitland
1 Preface to The Medal.
DK JURE REGNI. 285
is represented as having recently returned from
France ; and, by way of introduction, Buchanan asks
him how late events in Scotland are being talked of
on the Continent. He is told that men speak very
freely of the seditious character of the Scots, as
shown in the murder of Darnley, and in the pro-
ceedings against Mary. But, objects Buchanan,
if they are so indignant at the murder of Darnley,
why are they so full of pity for Mary ? If Mary
was guilty of Darnley's murder, she certainly de-
served punishment. Those who will not admit
this must belong to one of three classes — those who
pander to the desires of princes, because they hope
to profit by their misdeeds ; those who, for their
own selfish ends, approve peace at any price ; or,
lastly, the ignorant multitude, who are unwilling
to quit the beaten track, because they think every
novelty a crime.
The argument of the dialogue now begins ; but
Buchanan first asks that it may be allowed him as a
provisional postulate that king and tyrant are con-
tradictories. This being granted, he proceeds to
consider the origins of all society. Primitive men
had no fixed homes, no settled laws ; how did they
come in time to have both ? Utility, which some
have suggested, is not a satisfactory explanation,
since if individual men always considered their own
interest, it would lead rather to the dissolution than
the building up of society. The true explanation is
that in man there is a natural instinct which leads
him to associate with his fellows.1 Utility is rather
1 Buchanan's contemporary, Bodin, like many subsequent thinkers,
thought that violence created society. " Nos ipsa ratio," he says,
" deducit imperia scilicet ac respublicas vi primum coaluisse." — De
Republicd, lib. i. cap. vi. p. 40 (Ed. 1591).
286 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the handmaid than the mother of justice and equity.
Now, as in our bodies there are conflicting prin-
ciples, which induce disease, so it is with society.
What the physician, therefore, is to the body, the
king is to society. The various names by which he
is known, father, shepherd, and the like, prove that
the king exists not for himself but for his people.
The aim of physician and king is the same — to pre-
serve health, and to restore it when lost. In the
State as in the body there is a certain tempera-
mentum. For the State this is justice. Mait-
land objects that temperance is the apter virtue.
Buchanan replies that the term is immaterial.
But how can kings justly arise \ The answer is,
When they are chosen by the people, and continued
in their office by its will. But as no vote of the
people can make a man an artist or a physician, so
it may be said that the people cannot make a king.
But in the case of the artist a collection of precepts
guide him in the exercise of his art. In the case of
the king these precepts make what we call law.
Prudence is the art which the king has to practise ;
but as kings are not all gifted with prudence, the
law is added as something outside by which he must
be guided.
Maitland here objects that Buchanan would
unduly limit the power of kings, which is, indeed,
exactly what might have been expected from his
extravagant praise of the ancient republics and of
Venice. Buchanan replies that it is immaterial to
him what form of government a people may choose
so long as it is legitimate. King, doge, consul, all
are alike to him. Kings exist only for the admini-
stration of justice. Because they failed in this
DE JURE REGNL 287
the law was added. Rex, lex loquens ; lex, rex
mutus.
As the people are the authors of kings, so they
are and ought to be the authors of the law. They
must also be its interpreters, since otherwise they
could have no assurance that their interests would
be safe. Such limitations of their powers is no dis-
honour to kings, for it still leaves them the function
of the true physician — that of relieving the State
from all the evils to which it is incident. While it
is forbidden them to override the law, the glorious
task is assigned them of preserving and adminis-
trating it in its integrity — and could a god desire a
more exalted one ?
Buchanan then proceeds to distinguish between
kings and tyrants. He finds the distinction to be
that the latter seize and hold the power against the
will of the people, and make their own will the law.1
Here Maitland urges that as in Scotland kings are
hereditary and not elective, the people must needs
be content with whatever ruler chance may bring
them. Buchanan's answer is that the Scottish
people have always retained and exercised the right
1 We have seen that the questions— What constitutes a tyrant, and
under what circumstances is a people justified in calling him to account?
— intensely agitated men's minds about the period the De. Jure Regni
was written. After St. Bartholomew numberless writings discussing
these questions made their appearance. Bodin, a supporter of authority,
differs considerably from Buchanan in the answer he gives to the above
questions. This is his definition of a tyranny : " Tyrannis est in qua unus
homo, divinis ac naturae legibus sublatis, rebus alienis ut suis, et liberis
hominibus quasi mancipiis ad libidinem abutitur." — Lib. ii. cap. iv.
p. 261. In the case of such rulers Bodin justifies tyrannicide. In the
case of a lawful king, he will not allow his subjects under any circum-
stances to sit in judgment on him. He thinks, however, that they
are at liberty to call in a neighbouring prince to dethrone him. This
position of Bodin almost justifies the views of such men as Buchanan.
As is well known, the Catholics of the League taught the same doctrine
regarding tyrannicide as the Huguenots.
288 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of calling bad kings to account, and of punishing
violence offered to good ones. The murderers of
James I. were treated with every severity ; the
death of James in. was allowed to go unpunished.
The coronation oath by which the Scottish kings
swear to preserve the laws of the country clearly
proves the limited nature of their authority. John
Baliol was rejected by the Scottish nobility because
he acknowledged the suzerainty of Edward I.
The treatment of tyrants is next discussed.
Paul, Maitland suggests, taught obedience to the
higher powers under all circumstances ; and Caligula
and Nero then reigned. The answer is that Paul
speaks not of kings, but of the principle of authority.
That this must have been his meaning is proved by
the fact that if he had meant unconditional obedience
to every kind of ruler, his words would equally apply
to all grades of office. Judges, therefore, and other
subordinate officials, could not be punished for their
misdemeanours. Moreover, it is the express com-
mand of Scripture that every criminal should be
punished, and nowhere is any immunity from
punishment granted to tyrants. Though Scripture
may contain no instance of a king punished by his
subjects, this would by no means imply that it dis-
approves such punishment. Besides, in the case of
the Jewish kings, God himself was their founder :
to Hun, therefore, it was fitting they should directly
render account. If we take other countries, all pre-
cedent favours the right of the people to punish bad
kings. Twelve or more bad kings of Scotland might
be named who were imprisoned, exiled, or put to
death by their subjects. The case of James m. puts
this right of the Scottish people beyond question.
DE JURE REGNI- 289
In the Assembly of Estates it was enacted that
James had justly suffered death, a clause being
added that no one should be injured who had been
concerned in the conspiracy against him.K But,
says Maitland, the very laV by which the Estates
justified themselves is more likely to be called in
question by foreign nations than the deed itself. In
that case, Buchanan replies, every law may be called
in question. It is the king who receives authority
from the law, and not vice versa. But as it is the
people who made the law, they must surely possess
the power of dealing with the king who breaks it.
Nor is it derogatory to a king to be tried by his
own subjects, since the law by which he is tried is
in reality but his own voice. A king, if guilty of
any crime, should be judged by the same law as the
private citizen. If he refuse to submit to a trial,
force should then be applied, since he has broken
his compact with his people, and has become a
tyrant. Nay, since he is now a public enemy, indi-
viduals as well as the people collectively do well to
slay him. [Here Buchanan professes simply to
answer the question how far the rights of the
people against tyrants extend. The interests of
the people must determine when the punishment of
a tyrant is advisable.2 The dialogue then closes
with an indignant protest against the impertinent
criticism passed on Scottish affairs by foreign
nations. The Scots little deserve the charge of
being seditious, since no nation has been more
faithful to its kings, and has more steadily sacri-
1 As is well known, the lawyers of the seventeenth century sought
to efface this precedent by mutilating the record in which it is set forth.
2 These are his words : " Praeterea ego in hoc genere quid fieri jure
possit aut debeat explico, non ad rem suscipiendum exhortor."
T
290 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
ficed the interests of the few to the interests of the
many. It is the best proof of this, says Buchanan,
that there is no older monarchy in Europe than that
of the Scots.
From this analysis it will be seen that
Buchanan's tract is no contribution to political
science like the Republic of Bodin, or even the
Francogallia of his other contemporary Hotman.
Buchanan makes no attempt, like Bodin, by the
application of philosophical thinking to the facts
of history, to educe a form of government which
should abide the test of practice and best serve
the wellbeing of a people. Neither does he, like
Hotman, endeavour to base his theory of the govern-
ment of the Scots on a solid array of facts that
will stand the simplest historic test.1 But to
expect philosophic thinking or scientific research
in Buchanan is to expect what was alien alike
to his own habit of mind and the genius of his
century. The dialogue is to be regarded simply
as a party pamphlet ; and as such its success was
triumphant. _j Three editions of it appeared in three
successive years. On the Continent its publication
was expected with eager interest by the most dis-
tinguished scholars. " I have received your De Jure
Regni" writes one of his correspondents, the very
year of its publication, " which you sent me by the
letter-carrier of our friend Sturm. The gift would
have been a most welcome one had the importunities
of certain friends permitted me to take advantage
1 Hotman's object in his Francogallia is much the same as that of
Buchanan — to prove that originally France had the right of electing
its kings, and of sitting in judgment on its bad ones. Hotman's treatise,
however, though also that of a strong partisan, has a much higher his-
toric value than Buchanan's De Jure Rfgni.
DE JURE REGXI. 291
of it. But the very moment of its arrival, Dr.
Wilson borrowed it from me. He lent it to the
chancellor, the chancellor to the treasurer, who has
not yet returned it, so that to this day it has never
been in my hands. Your book has the approval of
all men of judgment and experience, and all who
have eyes to see the present political situation. The
parasites of princes, and such as think that laws
are made to be altered at their pleasure, will have
nothing of it. Almost everybody admires the
genius which at your advanced age can so skil-
fully catch the manner of the Platonic dialogue.
. . . Sturm, Hotman, and others are all eagerness
to have a sight of it." l
As we have seen, it continued to be widely read
during the next century, and to be regarded as a
highly dangerous document by all the upholders of
the divine right of kings.2 Its small bulk, and the
singular clearness and simplicity of its arguments,
gave it the advantage over Milton's rambling and
incoherent Defence of the People of England and
the tediously pedantic Lex Rex of Samuel Ruther-
furd. It might have been supposed that the interest
of Buchanan's dialogue would have ceased with the
English Revolution of 1688. Yet no fewer than
three editions of it in separate form were published
during the eighteenth century. It is also worthy
1 Epist. xxvi.
2 Hannay (North Brit. Rev. vol. xlvi.) quotes the following squib
produced during the English Civil Wars of the seventeenth century.
The Jesuit is Mariana, who in his De Rege et Regis Institutione taught
similar doctrines to that of Buchanan : —
" A Scot and Jesuit, hand in hand,
First taught the world to say
That subjects ought to have command,
And monarchs to obey."
292 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of note that in the year of the French' Revolu-
tion, 1789, an English translation was published
in London ; l and that in the year of the secession
of the Free Church of Scotland, 1843, another
translation appeared, bound up with the Lex Rex
of Samuel Rutherfurd.2
However slight, therefore, may be the scientific
value of Buchanan's tract, it is evident that it has a
very distinct place in the development of political
thought. The doctrines he taught, which by many
in his own day, and in the century that followed, were
regarded as subversive of all government, were in
every point carried into practice at the great English
Revolution. As for his ideas regarding tyrannicide,
the realisation of his views of the mutual relation of
king and people rendered unnecessary even their
theoretic discussion. In accounting for the demo-
cratic tendencies of modern Scotland, Buchanan
has to be considered as well as Knox and Andrew
Melville.
1 Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 247.
2 Robert Ogle, and Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1843.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
BUCHANAN'S most ambitious literary work was his
last. This was his History of Scotland in twenty
books, that all but fills the thicker folio in Ruddi-
man's edition of his works.1 To write history in
Buchanan's day was something very different from
writing it in ours. The limited number of autho-
rities he had to consult, the easy standard of accu-
racy he had to satisfy, made his task a far lighter
one than a similar undertaking would be at the
present day. Yet, produced as it was in advanced
age, in broken health, and apparently in other un-
toward circumstances, Buchanan's History must be
regarded as a signal proof of the native vigour of
his mind, and of his ardent and indomitable temper.
When he actually began his task we cannot
exactly determine. In his dedicatory letter to
James, he tells how the idea of his undertaking
first came to him. Shortly after his final return to
Scotland, when engaged in preparing a complete
edition of his poems, his friends had unanimously
besought him to produce a work " more worthy of
his advanced years and of the expectations his
1 Rerum Scoticarum Historia.
294 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
countrymen had formed of him". Such a work,
they urged, would be a history of his native
country, than which none could bring him more
applause or assure him a more enduring reputation.
He was the more easily persuaded to the under-
taking, " since our island of Britain is the most
famous in the world, and its history embraces
events in every respect worthy of narration".
Moreover, in the long lapse of ages, hardly a single
writer had dared to undertake the task, or had
proved himself equal to its execution. In telling
the story of James's ancestors, also, he would in
some measure atone for his inability, through con-
firmed ill-health, to perform the daily duties imposed
on him of fostering James's talents. Such, by his
own account, was the origin of the most arduous of
all his labours.
In a letter dated- 1576, one of his correspondents
says that " three years ago Buchanan had given him
hopes of seeing a book which he had written on the
origin of the British peoples".1 But it is not till
1577 that we hear from himself that he is actually
at work on his task. In a letter dated from Stirling
in that year he tells Randolph that his History is
his mam occupation. " As for the present," he says,
" I am occupiit in writyng of our historic, being
assurit to content few, and to displease many thair-
throw. As to the end of it, yf ye gett it not or
thys winter be passit, lippin not for it,2 nor nane
other writyngs from me. The rest of my occupation
is wyth the gout, quhilk haldis me besy both day
and nyt." 3 Writing also to another correspondent
in 1579, he speaks of his various literary occupa-
1 Epist. xiv.
- Do not reckon on receiving it. 3 Letter already quoted.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 295
tions, and specially mentions his History. " To my
other labours," he proceeds, " I must add that of my
History, a task irksome enough at the best period of
life ; but, with death immediately before my eyes,
and the disgrace of leaving undone what I have
once undertaken, both tedious and ungrateful, since
I am neither permitted to desist, nor have any
pleasure in going on." l By 1579 his correspondents
had heard that his work was nearing completion,
and begin to express their desire for its appearance.
In that year Randolph writes to him as follows : —
" This putteth me in Mynd of many things more
great prayse worthie donne by you, especially the
Historic of our whole Isle, wherein I may justly
complayne of you, my good Maister, that I shall not
have so much as a sight therof, before myne Eyes
be cleane shutt up, that nowe are become for Age
very dymme. What maketh yow to doubt to let it
come foorthe, a Spectacle unto the World, no lesse
famous then Apelles Table was, and as voyde of
comptrollement as his Worke was, howe curiouse
soever the Souter would seme to be ? I pray yow
deferre no more Tyme ; at the least let us knowe
what yow mynd to doe with it, and employ my
Labor, and charge me so farre as yow please, that
shortly we may enjoy our longe desyrid Hope in a
Matter of so great Weight. Wherin yow will I am
ever at your Command." Randolph's words lead
us to believe that, when he wrote, the work was
already finished, but for some reason or other was
held back from publication. That this was the case
is proved by a letter of Bowes to Cecil dated from
Stirling the previous year3: — " Buchanan hath ended
1 Epist. xxvii. 2 Epist. xxii.
3 Murdin, Collection of State Papers, p. 316 (Lond. 1759, fol.).
296 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
his story wryttin to the death of the Erie of Murray.
He proposeth to command it to print shortly : but
one thing of late hath been withdrawal from him,
which he trusteth to recover, or else to supply of
new with soever travell. He accepteth your lord-
ship's commendations with great comfort, and re-
turn eth to your lordship his humble duty and
thanks." As another book continues his History
after the assassination of Moray, the delay may
have been due to the lack of certain materials to
complete his task.
It need not excite our wonder that Buchanan,
who was " easily the greatest poet of his age ",
should also have undertaken to write history.
Division of intellectual labour was hardly under-
stood by the humanists ; nor had they realised that
special faculties and special- types of mind are de-
manded for special studies. It was the belief of
Buchanan's friends that as he wrote the best verses
of his time, the probability was that he would also
write the best History. We have just seen in his
letter to James what motives had prompted him to
his work. Yet the fact that he wrote his History
in Latin and not in Scots, of which he was really a
master, proves that to the very last Buchanan
belonged to Europe 'rather than to Scotland. It
was certainly open to him, as to Knox and Bishop
Lesley,1 to have written his last and most important
book in the language in which all his countrymen
could have understood him. But the instincts of
the humanist were still too strong for him, and the
ambition to speak to learned Europe overbore the
more patriotic motive to speak in their own language
to the limited circle of his own countrymen. At the
1 Lesley afterwards published a version of his History in Latin.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 297
same time it may be urged for Buchanan that he,
like his friend Sturm, confidently believed that
sooner or later Latin was bound to supersede all the
vernacular languages of Europe. By writing in
Scots, therefore, he may have thought that he would
but help to delay this desirable end, and would,
moreover, doom the great work of his life to speedy
oblivion.
Of the spirit and temper in which Buchanan
carried through his work we have a glimpse in
certain casual references in his letters to Randolph.
In that already quoted we have seen that he believed
that his History " would content few and displease
many ". In another letter to Randolph he is more
explicit : " As to my occupation at this present
time, I am besy w* our story of Scotland to purge
it of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite, as to
maister knoks his historic is in hys freindis handis,
and thai ar in consultation to mitigat sum part
the acerbite of certaine wordis and sum taintis
quhair in he has followit to much sum of your inglis
writaris as M. hal et suppilatorem eius." It has of
late years been shown that it is precisely the
"English lies and Scottish vanity" of which
Buchanan speaks that have been the main causes
of the extraordinary distortion of Scottish history
from the beginning.1 In the conscious endeavour
not to be misled by either of these motives,
Buchanan's attitude was, therefore, distinctly criti-
cal. That he kept the two stumbling-blocks of his
predecessors in view, many parts of his History veiy
forcibly remind us. But to expect from Buchanan
a critical handling of early Scottish history in the
1 See Mr. Skene's Introduction to Fordun's History.
298 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
spirit of the nineteenth century, would, of course,
be ridiculous. With the best intentions in the
world, indeed, Buchanan was as incapable of a
purely objective treatment of men and things as his
countryman Carlyle himself. On the other hand,
everything we know of him goes to show that
Carlyle was not more incapable than Buchanan of
deliberate misrepresentation of facts, or compro-
mising deference to opinion. Intensity of con-
viction and the vagaries of a powerful nature
may often mislead him as to facts and principles,
but his errors are those of an independent thinker,
who believed in the sacredness and infinite import-
ance of truth. When Buchanan said that his
History would " content few and displease many ",
he gives us the key at once to his History and to
his entire work and character. But even had
Buchanan been a man of the purest scientific
temper, the time was yet far off when early Scottish
history could possibly be placed on a historical basis.
It would be absurd, therefore, to blame him for not
divining results which have been reached only
during the last quarter of a century.1
Buchanan had no such philosophic conception
of the task he undertook as that which had been
lately announced by Bodin in his Historical Method.
According to Bodin, " the task of the historian is
above all the study of political conditions, and the
explanation of human revolutions ".2 In that part
of his work which he knew best, the history of his
1 Buchanan's latest translator, Aikman (Glasgow, 1827), thinks that
he is meeting a desideratum in supplying a new translation of Buchanan's
History. He says in his preface that Buchanan's list of the first forty
kings was " at best doubtful ", and he is inclined to accept Buchanan in
spite of Father Innes, Pinkerton, and Chalmers.
2 Baudrillart, Bodin et son Temps, p. 152.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 299
own time, Buchanan had an excellent opportunity
of putting in practice this maxim of Bodin. But,
as we shall see, though this section of his History
has an undoubted value of its own, Buchanan shows
no real insight into the drift and scope of the great
movements that passed under his very eyes. While
he has thus no philosophical conception of his sub-
ject, he has at the same time little of the practical
sense of de Comines and Machiavelli, which came
of their actual experience of affairs. In his mode of
presenting facts, and the character of the reflections
he passes upon them, he is simply the theorist to
whom forms of government and their various func-
tions are subjects of keen feeling and conventional
speculation, and not actualities that are constantly
being modified by the friction of human experience.
His History is a brilliant and powerful narrative of
the lives of the successive Scottish monarchs, of
their wars, their battles, their quarrels with their
subjects, their understandings and misunderstand-
ings with foreign powers. Of the growth of the
Scottish nation, the significance of special periods in
its development, the gradual fusion of the races
that compose it — of these things we learn little
from Buchanan. His conception of history was, in
short, the conventional one of the humanists, who
in history, as in everything else, were content to
imitate to the best of their ability the examples
they most admired among the ancients.
In his first book, Buchanan, following the ex-
ample of Boece and other predecessors, gives a geo-
graphical description of the country whose history
he is about to write. This was, of course, from no
such philosophical conception as that in which
300 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Bodin anticipated Montesquieu — the influence of
climate on man.1 Yet this chapter is in some re-
spects the most valuable of Buchanan's whole work.
The most interesting part of his description he
could give from direct personal observation, as at
one time or other he had visited most corners of the
Lowlands of Scotland. It gives an additional value
to this report that his extensive travels on the Con-
tinent supplied him with contemporary standards
by which he could measure the relative advantages
of Scotland. More than half of his description is
devoted to the islands of Scotland — " a part of
British history," he says, " which is involved in the
gravest errors". In this part of his description,
however, he professes not to speak from personal
knowledge, but on the authority of one " Donald
Monro, a pious man and careful observer, who has
himself traversed all these islands, and examined
them with his own eyes". The following is
Buchanan's description of the islanders themselves,
which may have a certain interest in these days of
Crofter Commissions : —
" In food, dress, and all their domestic arrange-
ments they practise a primitive economy. They
live by hunting and fishing. In cooking their fish
they use the stomachs or skins of the beasts they
kill. During their hunting expeditions, they some-
times squeeze out the blood and eat the flesh raw.
Their drink is the broth of boiled flesh. At their
feasts they also drink with avidity the whey of
milk after it has been preserved for some years.
This beverage they call Bland.* The majority
quench their thirst with water. They make bread
1 Baurlrillart, Bodin et son Tempt, p. 150.
2 This beverage is still in general use in Shetland.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 301
of oats and barley (the only crops produced in that
region). This bread is not unpleasant, as they make
it with the skill that comes of daily practice. A
little of this in the morning satisfies them for a
day's hunting or other labour. They delight in
gay-coloured garments, especially striped. They
are especially fond of purple and blue colours.
Their ancestors wore plaids of various colours,
the colours being different in different districts (as
is, indeed, still generally the case). Most of them
now wear clothes of a dark brown colour, very like
heather, so that when lying amongst the heather no
brilliant colour may betray them. Their clothes
hang loosely about them, yet they brave every in-
clemency of the weather, and sometimes sleep under
the snow. At home, also, they lie on the ground,
placing under them fern or heath with roots down-
ward in such wise that they have a couch as soft as
down, and far more wholesome. The heath, with
its natural dryness, absorbs all the superfluous
moisture of the body, and restores its vigour to such
a degree that he who lies down at night wearied
and faint rises in the morning sprightly and active.
As for mattresses and bed-clothes, they not merely
disregard them, but profess the most eager desire
for hardiness and simplicity. If occasion or neces
sity ever call them into another country, they toss
the mattress and bed-clothes on the ground, and
compose themselves to sleep in the clothes they
have on — and this they do from their anxiety lest
that barbarous self-indulgence (as they call it) should
corrupt their native and inbred hardiness. In war
they cover their bodies with an iron helmet and a
coat of mail constructed of iron rings, which gener-
ally reaches almost to the heel. Their weapons are
302 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
bows and arrows — the latter generally pointed with
barbs, with prongs protruding on both sides, so that
unless the wound be laid open they cannot be ex-
tracted. Some fight with broadswords and axes.
In place of the trumpet they use the bagpipe (tibia
utnculari). They take great delight in music,
though their instruments are peculiar to themselves.
Some of these instruments have brazen strings, others
gut ones. These they strike with quills, or their
nails, which they wear very long. Their one ambition
is to bedeck their instruments with a great show
of silver and jewels. The poorer class substitute
crystal ornaments for jewels. They also sing
songs not inartistically composed, whose themes are
generally the praises of heroes. Their bards have
almost no other theme. They speak in somewhat
modified form the ancient language of the Gauls."
In his second book, Buchanan addresses himself
to a problem which in his day, as in ours, exercised
all patriotic antiquaries — the origin of the various
races that found their way into Britain. By his
contemporaries Buchanan's treatment of the ques-
tion was considered both learned and critical. He
is aware of the difficulty of the investigation. " In
my endeavours," he begins, " to recall the events of
British history of more than a thousand years ago,
many difficulties present themselves, but this in chief,
that in these very regions where the knowledge of
our origin ought to be found, for a long period no
learning existed, and, when late in the day it did
arrive, it perished almost in its birth." Both "English
lies " and " Scottish vanity " come in here for the
most vigorous animadversion. Of Albion and the
fifty daughters of Diocletian, and Brutus, and the
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 303
rest of the legendary English history, Buchanan
speaks as sarcastically as Milton himself. But the
Scottish legend of Gathelus, the successor of Moses
in Egypt, who with his wife Scota founded the
nation of the Scots, is treated with equally little
ceremony.1 Like Milton, he takes the trouble to
tell this mythical history, but with the apology to
the reader that he does so " because certain people
stand by it as pertinaciously as if it had been a
Palladium dropped from Heaven ".
Coming to what he considers historical times, he
affirms that three peoples anciently possessed the
whole island — Britons, Picts, and Scots. The
Britons came from Gaul, though not from that part
of it known as Brittany. The Scots came from
Spain through Ireland into Scotland. To dis-
tinguish the Scots of Ireland from those of Scot-
land, the former were called Irish Scots, the latter
Albyn Scots. In time, however, the name Scots
was dropped, and these additions came to be their
only distinction. The name Picts he does not think
to have been the original name of that people ; but
either a name given by the Romans, or a Latin word
adopted by that people themselves. From their
habit of marking their skins with iron, and adorning
them with the figures of various animals, he conjec-
tures whence the Picts must originally have come.
The Getini, a people of Thrace, had also this habit,
and, as Tacitus has said, also spoke Gaelic. The
inference, therefore, must be that the Picts are
kindred to the Getini, and, therefore, came from
their country — either, that is to say, from the shores
of the Baltic, or from the banks of the Danube.
1 Major is equally sceptical. — De Gestis Scotorum, lib. i. cap. ix.
301 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Buchanan is especially wroth with the theories of
Humphrey Lloyd, a Welsh antiquary, who had
lately published a tract on the antiquities of Britain.
Lloyd had maintained that the Caledonians were
Britons and not Picts, and that the Scots and Picts
are not found in Britain before the reign of Honorius
in 420 A.D. On this subject, as Bishop Nicolson
remarks, " Buchanan is so intemperately hot, that
he appears to an unprejudiced English reader to
have more Welsh blood in him than he's aware of;
proving unadvisedly what he will not allow his
antagonist to have done, that the ancient Britons
and Scots are of one family and kindred." ] It
further excites his wrath that Lloyd should have
made " a scurrilous attack on Hector Boece, a
man not only distinguished beyond his time, but
remarkable for his high-toned feeling and kind
consideration of others ".
His third book Buchanan devotes to extracts
from ancient authors, who support the opinions he
has just advanced. The reasons he gives for making
these quotations throw a curious light on the
heated controversies then current on subjects which
of all others might be supposed to permit of " dry
light ". But such questions, we must remember,
had, before the Union of the Crowns, a certain
political importance which in a measure justified this
liveliness of feeling. " Although," he thus begins
his third book, " I have sufficiently proved in the
two preceding books how not only fabulous, but
monstrous, are the matters which historians have
handed down regarding our ancestors, and have
shown, by the most convincing argument, that the
1 Bishop Nicolson, Scottish Historical Library.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 305
Britons originally sprang from Gaul ; nevertheless,
because I have here to deal rather with men who
doggedly shut their eyes to self-evident truth, than
with men who have heedlessly stumbled into error,
I have thought it worth while to try if, from writers
of the highest authority among the learned, I might
not put some check on the presumption of idle
meddlers, and supply weapons to good men and
lovers of truth, wherewith to restrain their licence
of statement."
In his fourth book, Buchanan thinks he is on firm
ground, and, with Fordun and Boece as his principal
guides, confidently embarks on that extraordinary
history of the legendary kings, whose portraits adorn
the walls of Holyrood.1 Here and there he applies
the pruning-knife to Boece's astonishing narrative,
but his story is virtually the same as that of Boece.
Beginning with Fergus, the first king of the Scots
(330 B.C.), he describes the reigns of sixty-eight
monarchs before Kenneth Macalpine, with a circum-
stantiality of detail admirably fitted to carry the
profoundest conviction to the innocent reader. The
most trivial acts of these kings, the exact dates of
their births and deaths, the names of their wives
and children and various relations, are all given
with a confidence and precision which, now that we
know that the whole is absolute fiction, remind us
of the tales of Swift and Defoe. Buchanan is
charier than Boece in putting elaborate speeches in
the mouths of his kings, but he also does not
hesitate to produce them on occasion. He shows
his scepticism most in largely rejecting the " sundry
1 Major is much more cautious on the subject of these legendary
kings than Boece and Buchanan.
U
306 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
merveilles"1 with which Boece continually seasons
his narrative. Yet Buchanan also has his own
marvels to relate, though of a kind more adapted to
the taste of his more sceptical generation. In his
history of these legendary kings, Buchanan, like
Boece, is careful to unfold his own theories of the
Scottish constitution. Thus of King Finnan, his
tenth king, he gravely tells us " that in order that
he might remove tyranny root and branch, he made
a decree that kings should pass no law of import-
ance without the authority of the public council ".
Tyrannical kings are invariably deposed by the
people, though the royal authority is always
regarded with reverence. Durst, for example, the
king who followed Finnan, proved an insufferable
tyrant, and his people were forced to take up arms
against him. But " though all orders detested him,
yet, for the reverence due to the royal name and
the memory of his ancestors, he was buried in the
place of his fathers ".
In the part of his work dealing with the period
of Roman occupation, Buchanan, as we should
expect, is more critical than his predecessor Boece.
Thus Boece boldly claims as a king of the Scots the
famous British hero Caractacus, who, in the reign
of Claudius, made such a gallant stand against the
Romans. Buchanan also gives a Caradoc as a king
of the Scots in the time of Claudius, but he pru-
dently confines his exploits to Scotland. One of
Boece's doughtiest heroes is King Galdus, whom
he unhesitatingly identifies with the Galgacus of
Tacitus, and on whose exploits he enlarges in his
best manner. Buchanan is more cautious. " There
1 The phrase is Bellenden's, the translator of Boece.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 307
are some," he says, " who think that this Galdus is
the Galgacus of Tacitus"; and he proceeds to remark
that, in his opinion, Galdus was the first Scottish
king who bore arms against the Romans, thus
disposing of Boece's other champion Caradoc.
As we should expect, Buchanan's opinions on the
early religious history of Scotland differ widely from
those of Major and Boece. His account of the
Culdees is curious, and seems to mark a tradition
(now more cautiously accepted) that they differed
essentially from the later Roman Church in Scot-
land. In the reign of Fincormac, his thirty-fifth
king, he tells us that, the country being freed from
the attacks of the Romans, the Scots seriously
turned their attention to the state of religion. As
it happened, at this particular moment the persecu-
tion of Diocletian drove many pious men to take
refuge in Scotland. After lives of solitude, these
men left behind them such a name for sanctity, that
the cells in which they lived were converted into
churches. Hence arose the custom of the ancient
Scots of calling their churches cells. " These monks,"
he proceeds, " were called Culdees, and their
name and discipline remained till a later race of
monks, divided into many sects, expelled them.
These monks were as inferior to their predecessors
in learning and piety as they were superior to them
in wealth and ceremonial, and in all other rites
which catch the eye and delude the mind." In the
same way, Buchanan has nothing but praise for
Columba, and only reprobation for St. Augustine.
His account of the latter shows how completely he
had identified himself with the views of Knox and
the other Scottish reformers. " In the reign of
308 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
Aidan (his forty-ninth king), there came to Britain,
sent thither by Pope Gregory, a certain monk
named Augustine, who, by his own self-seeking,
wrought great confusion in the old religion by
teaching a new one ; since it was not so much
Christian doctrine he taught as the ritual of Rome.
For the Britons of former times, having learned
Christianity from the disciples of John the Evan-
gelist, were instructed by monks, whom that age
had hitherto esteemed both learned and pious. But
this monk, by making the See of Rome supreme in
Britain, by giving himself out as the one archbishop
of the whole country, and introducing a dispute
neither necessary nor profitable concerning the time
for celebrating Easter, brought much confusion into
the churches; and by his new ceremonial and
fictitious miracles so crushed the ancient discipline,
already tending towards superstition, that hardly a
trace of sincere piety was left."
When he reaches the strictly historical period of
his subject, it is the " English lies " rather than
the " Scottish vanity " that come in for Buchanan's
censure. Though he does not, like Fordun and
Boece, boldly claim the foundation of Paris Univer-
sity for two Scotsmen, yet, in his account of the
union of the Picts and Scots, he is as credulous as
his predecessors. Through the prowess of Kenneth
Macalpin, king of the Scots, he maintains that
" the rebellious and perfidious Picts " were brought
under the subjection of the Scots, and ever after-
wards remained an inferior people. The English
historians had been in the habit of asserting that in
the reign of Constantine in. (that is, Buchanan's
Constantino in.) Athelstane was sole king of Britain,
and that all other kings in the island were his
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 309
feudatories. This calls forth one of those scath-
ing passages, which show that, in spite of his old
age and his gout, Buchanan had lost little of
the fiery spirit of his youth. " Those who main-
tain this," he says, " quote approvingly many
wretched English scribes, and to corroborate their
story add Marianus Scotus, a writer of high reputa-
tion. On this matter, however, I have thought it
right to warn the reader, that in the edition of
Marianus published in Germany there is no men-
tion whatever of this circumstance. If they have
another Marianus different from the one the rest of
the world knows, interpolated and touched up by
themselves, I wish they would produce it. More-
over, these men (being for the most part quite
devoid of letters) do not sufficiently understand
their own writers, nor perceive that Bede, William
of Malmesbury, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, gene-
rally speak of that country as Britain over which
the Britons ruled, namely, that which is within the
wall of Hadrian, or, when its boundary extended
further, within the wall of Severus." 1
It is in Buchanan's treatment of such important
reigns as those of Malcolm Canmore, David i., and
Alexander in., that we miss that philosophical con-
ception of history which we find in Bodin and
Machiavelli. Buchanan is as lavish as the chroni-
clers who preceded him in his praises of Malcolm.
Yet from his different religious standpoint, Malcolm's
ecclesiastical policy, prompted by his wife Margaret,
1 Buchanan is here in accordance with the latest antiquaries in dis-
tinguishing the wall of Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway from
that of Severus between the Forth and the Clyde. Until recent years,
antiquaries, misled by Bede, have associated the name of Severns with
the wall connecting the Tyne and the Solway. Buchanan draws special
attention to the fact that Bede was in error.
310 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
could hardly have had his unqualified approval.
But the national tradition was too strong for him,
and he has no words of blame for Malcolm's nursing
of the religion which as a reformer he was bound to
detest. Indeed, it may be said in passing, that it
seems to have been a point with the early Scottish
historians, and with Buchanan among the rest, to
say the best they could of their kings. Of the
immense importance of the English immigration
into Scotland during David T/S reign Buchanan
makes no more than either Boece or Major. He
notes the fact that the English speech then began
to predominate in the country; but he evidently
thought that the new-comers hardly brought a
blessing. " Malcolm," he says, " made all but fruit-
less attempts to check the luxury, which, already
prevailing through the presence of multitudes of
English, and the intercourse with other countries,
now, through the entertainment of many exiles of
English race over the whole country, began to be a
serious evil." Of Donald Bane, the usurper who
followed Malcolm, Buchanan says, " that all good
men, who revered the memory of Malcolm and Mar
garet, detested him ". It is curious that Buchanan
should thus unconsciously have reprobated in Donald
the dying struggle of that Celtic race whose glories
he was so fond of celebrating. In his account of
David L, Buchanan faithfully follows Fordun and
Boece, even to assigning him a brilliant victory over
the English at Northallerton. He also follows the
national tradition in exalting the virtues of David ;
but with Boece and Major he is disposed to question
his wisdom in so lavishly enriching the Church at
the expense of the Crown. In this reference he
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 311
makes kindlier mention of Major than in his auto-
biography, and seems pleased to have the weight of
his authority on his side. "John Major," he says,
" who had a great name in theology when I was a
boy, though he highly eulogises all the other acts of
this king, yet censures him (and would that his
censure had been less true) for this prodigality
towards the monasteries." It is from David's reign,
Buchanan thinks, that true learning and true
religion in the Church mainly date their decline.
With reference to William the Lion's acknowledg-
ment of the feudal superiority of England, Buchanan
makes larger admissions than his predecessors. It
is evident, however, that he does so sorely against
his will. After making the admission he goes on to
remark, " But some say that the meeting between
William and Henry had not for its object the ques-
tion of superiority, but the payment of certain
tributes, and the surrender of certain fortresses till
such time as these tributes should be paid." And
he proceeds to say that, in view of the treaty after-
wards renewed by William and Richard, this opinion
seems to him nearer the truth.
In the period of the Wars of Independence
Buchanan found materials which bring out his
strongest points as a historian. Modern research
has here, as elsewhere, discredited much that he tells
us. We can now only smile at what he calls the
"ingenuous reply" made to Edward I. by Bruce,
the rival of John Baliol — "that he was not so
desirous of reigning as to curtail the inherited
liberties of his country ". But his narrative of the
gallant struggle of his countrymen against England
is told with a force and picturesqueness which prove
312 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
that he put his full strength into this part of his
work. Buchanan had undoubtedly something of
Scott's eye for local details, and in his descriptions
of battles he never fails to present a careful map of
the field. He had also Scott's own relish for battle
and adventure. Of Wallace and Bruce he writes
with all the fervour of a Scotsman, convinced that
their memory is his country's best possession. " Such
was the end of a man," he says of Wallace, " by far
the most distinguished of the age in which he lived ;
for greatness of soul in undertaking tasks of danger,
and for courage and counsel in the conduct of
affairs, easily comparable to the most famous leaders
of antiquity; second to none in affection for his
country ; who, alone a freeman among slaves, could
neither be induced by rewards, nor constrained by
fear, to abandon the public cause which he had once
undertaken to defend ; whose death seemed the
more deserving of commiseration, that while he was
still unconquered by the enemy, he was betrayed by
those who should have been the last in the world to
have proved false." His portrait of Bruce is one of
the classical passages of his History. It will be seen
how entirely he has in this portrait caught the
manner of the ancients :l —
" To put as shortly as possible what I have to
say, Robert Bruce was certainly a man in every
respect of the very highest distinction, and one to
whom, even from heroic times, we shall find few
equals in all manner of virtue. As he was of the
first courage in war, so in peace his justice and
moderation were supreme ; and although unexpected
1 " Few modern histories are more redolent of an antique air than
Buchanan's History." — Hallam, Lit. Mid. Ages, vol. i. p. 257. (1842.)
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 313
success, and (after fortune had sated, or rather
wearied, herself with his misfortunes) an unbroken
series of victories gave a noble lustre to his life, yet
in his adversity he seems to me more worthy of
admiration. For what was the strength of that
mind which was not to be overwhelmed, nay, not
even to be shaken, by the united attack of such an
army of ills ? What that constancy which was not
to be moved by a wife in captivity, four brothers
(all men of the most sterling courage) cruelly put
to death, friends vexed at one and the same tune by
every species of calamity, those who were able to
escape with life exiles and beggared, himself not
only spoiled of his own ample patrimonial domain,
but of his kingdom, by a prince the most powerful
of those times and the most prompt in counsel and
action ? Beset at one time by all these evils, and
reduced to the extremest need, he never doubted
that the kingdom should one day be his, and never
said or did aught unbecoming a king. He neither,
like the younger Cato nor like Marcus Brutus, laid
violent hands on himself, nor did he, like Marius,
driven to madness by his calamities, give the loose to
his hatred against his enemies. For when he had
regained his ancient condition, he lived in such wise
with those who had made his life so hard, that he
seemed to remember not so much that he had once
been their enemy, as that he was now their king.
At the approach of his end, even when a most painful
disease made more grievous his failing age, he was
still so true to himself that he put on a stable
foundation the existing state of his kingdom, and
made careful provision for the tranquillity of his
descendants ; so that for most excellent reasons did
314 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
all men at his death grieve as for one who had not
been only a just king, but their affectionate parent."
As our object is not so much to appraise
Buchanan's History as to mark his own character
and opinion in his work, we give other two quota-
tions which have a distinct biographical interest.
In his account of Robert in. he makes a short
digression to relate the exploits of the Earl of
Buchan in France. He seldom makes such digres-
sions, and when he does so, he usually thinks it
necessary to make an apology to his readers. The
apology on this occasion is that " the detractions of
certain English writers have forced him into it".
" These writers," he proceeds, " enviously seek to
throw contempt on achievements which they dare
not deny. Even if history were silent, the magni-
ficence of kings, the decrees of states, and the noble
monuments at Orleans and Tours, put them beyond
question. What then is the ground of the cavil-
ling ? They tell us, forsooth, that the Scots are too
poor to maintain such bodies of troops abroad. If
they deem poverty a fault, it is the fault of the
land and not of the people. Nor should I have
taken it as a reproach had these writers not shown
that they meant it as such. I will only make this
reply — that these same poor, and (as they will have
it) needy Scots, have gained many a notable victory
over the wealthy English. If they do not take my
word for it, let them take that of their own his-
torians. If they do not believe what their own
writers have written, let them not ask us to do so."
But, he curtly adds, let us return to the affairs of
the Scots.
The other passage also refers to what Buchanan
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 315
considered "English lies" regarding Scottish history.
On this occasion his wrath is especially directed
against " Hall and his plagiarist Grafton " l for
charging James I. with base ingratitude to the
English king in marrying his daughter to the
Dauphin, afterwards Louis xi. of France. These
writers had maintained that in educating James,
and afterwards supplying him with a wife, Henry iv.
had put the Scottish king under a lifelong debt of
gratitude. In view of the real circumstances of the
case, Buchanan naturally thought these statements
somewhat barefaced, and gives us a specimen of his
most pungent style. He closes his digression as
follows : " But leaving these half-instructed men,
who forget all moderation and modesty in their
writings, to count favours received as benefits con-
ferred, what must we think of the lying eifrontery,
the unbridled slanders, which they permit them-
selves in speaking of the daughter of the same
king (James I.) ? These writers tell us (for against
her character, insolent though they are, they did
not dare to imagine a charge) that this princess
was displeasing to her husband by reason of her
mal- odorous breath. But Monstrelet, a contem-
porary writer, relates that she was both virtuous
and beautiful ; and the author of the Pluscardine
Book, who accompanied the queen on her voyage,
and was present at her death, has left it on record,
that as long as she lived she was much beloved by
her father-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband ; as
indeed appears by her epitaph at Chalons on the
Marne (where she died), a poem ascribing to her
1 It is worth noting that the Latin expression here is the same as
that in Buchanan's letter to Randolph quoted above.
316 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
every virtue, and which, translated into the Scots
tongue, is in the possession of most of our countrymen
at the present day. But leaving these slanderers of
another people's reputation, who are yet so careless
of their own that they pay as little heed to what
they say of others as to what others say of them, —
let us proceed to the subject in hand."
Buchanan's account of the reign of James in.,
through no fault of his own, is of less value than
his account of the other Jameses,1 but it contains
the most famous passage in his whole History — the
speech he puts into the mouth of Bishop Kennedy.
This speech of Kennedy, and that of Morton in the
twentieth book, embody Buchanan's political creed,
and, taken together, they are simply another state-
ment of the doctrines of the De Jure Regni. It
may be said that they also give us the measure of
the very limited circle of political ideas familiar to
Buchanan. As the oration of Kennedy fills rather
more than three folio pages it cannot be produced
here. The point to which the bishop addresses
himself is the expediency of appointing the queen-
mother as Regent during the minority of James in.
It is needless to say that Buchanan is of exactly
the same mind as Knox with regard to " the
regiment of women". In the bishop's speech he
had doubtless the nation's experiences of Mary in
his thoughts, but it would be a mistake to think
that these experiences determined his opinions. The
two arguments he ascribes to Kennedy — that female
rule is at once contrary to nature and to Scottish
tradition — were in fact what as a Scotsman and an
1 The publication of the Foedera Anglica discredited both Buchanan's
and Lesley's account of this reign. — Tytler, History of Scotland (Notes
and Illustrations. Letter P, vol. ii.).
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 317
admirer of the ancients, he was bound to maintain.
It deserves to be noted that Buchanan bestows the
highest eulogy on Kennedy, in this case as in others
showing that his religious convictions did not blind
him, as they blinded Knox, to merit in those of
another faith from his own. With an evident
reference to Major, he says " that Kennedy caused
a magnificent tomb to be erected to himself at St.
Andrews, which the malignity of men grudged him,
though as a private citizen he had deserved well
of most, and, as a statesman, of all".1
From the reign of James iv., Buchanan's History
assumes the special interest of a contemporary narra-
tive. What he henceforth has to say is either from
direct personal knowledge, or from the information
of men who had such knowledge. It is to be re-
membered that in all the years which he spent in
Scotland, he was at the very centre of the nation's
life. As a youth he had studied at St. Andrews,
in his second sojourn in Scotland he was in the
closest contact with the Court itself, and in the
last years of his life he was himself a public man who
had his own share in the great events of his time.
As one who had had daily intercourse with Mary,
who was intimate with Moray, Lennox, Mar, Knox,
and other leaders of the people, his narrative must
needs have an importance which it would be a serious
mistake to undervalue. In his account of his own
century, Buchanan puts before us the construction
of its main tendencies as they appeared to the party
to which he belonged. Such a statement from a man
1 Major speaks thus of Kennedy : " Duo in viro non laudo, scilicet
commendam cuin tali episcopatu tenuisse, licet exigua erat ; nee
sepulchri sumptuositatem approbo." — De Gestis Scotorum, lib. vi.
cap. 19.
318 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
of Buchanan's powers of mind, with his wide ex-
perience of men and things, and intense interest in
the great movements of life, puts us in a far truer
relation to his century than any modern reconstruc-
tion we may base on piles of State documents. It
is the drawback of such documents, that in present-
ing us, it may be, with unquestionable facts, they
give us the mere death-mask, not the living features,
of the past.
In his account of the reign of James iv.
Buchanan thrice specially vouches for his facts on
the evidence of contemporaries. In each of the
three cases it will be seen that a special voucher
was certainly called for. The first is his descrip-
tion of " a new kind of monster born in Scotland ",
which would appear to have been an anticipation of
the Siamese twins. The King, he tells us, took a
great interest in the creature, and had it taught
several languages, and also music, "in which it
made wonderful progress". "Concerning this
affair," Buchanan adds, " I speak with the greater
confidence, that many honest men are still alive
who saw these things." It is a quaint circumstance
that Buchanan, a man with all the culture of the
age in his head, should thus break his stately nar-
rative of the nation's destinies to give a minute
description of this wretched abortion. But the
notable cases of Melanchthon and Bodin remind us
that this curiosity in the monstrosities of nature
was a weakness of the best spirits of the sixteenth
century. The above, it should be said, is only the
best example of many of the same type to be found
in Buchanan's History. More interesting is his
reference to Sir David Lyndsay as his authority for
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 319
the story of the apparition in Linlithgow Church
warning James iv. against his fatal expedition into
England. " Among those present," he says, " was
David Lyndsay of the Mount, a man of noted
honesty and veracity, devoted to learning, and
whose whole life showed how utterly incapable he
was of a lie." Buchanan's intercourse with Lynd-
say must belong to the period when he was acting
as tutor to the natural son of James. This glimpse
of the actual contact of the two brightest geniuses
of their day in Scotland, with this quaint specimen
of their talk, is as if we caught the sudden glance
of an eye, or felt the living touch of a hand from
out the depths of the past. Speaking of the various
stories that went regarding the fate of James iv.,
he also says, " However it may have gone with
him, I have thought that I should not keep back
what I have heard more than once from Lawrence
Tallifer, a man of learning and virtue. He used to
tell (for as one of the King's pages he was a spectator
of the battle) that when the fortune of the day was
decided, he saw the King mount a horse, and cross
the Tweed." Buchanan was seven years old when
Flodden was lost, and his story of the battle and
its fateful consequences to Scotland has a peculiar
interest as the expression of the mingled grief and
shame and indignation which the memory of that
day awoke in every Scotsman. " Such was that
famous fight at Flodden," he says with a pathetic
pride that touches the heart of a Scotsman even to
the present day, "memorable among the few de-
feats sustained by the Scottish nation, not so much
by reason of the numbers slain (for in other battles
double the numbers were lost), as that by the
320 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
destruction of the King and his nobles, few re-
mained to rule a populace fierce by nature, and
unrestrained by the dread of punishment."
From the battle of Flodden onwards, Buchanan's
History of necessity becomes more deeply tinged
with personal feeling. On the feuds of the houses
of Lennox and Hamilton it was impossible that a
man with Buchanan's character and connections
should speak with judicial impartiality. It was
during this period also that the struggle between
the old and the new religions began, and Buchanan
wrote of that struggle at a time when the bitter-
ness of the strife was still at its height. Moreover,
his long absence from Scotland made it necessary
that he should take much of his narrative from men
who would put their own construction on the facts
with which they supplied him. Of the secret deal-
ings with the Courts of England and France, which
so powerfully affected the course of Scottish affairs,
Buchanan could only have had the most imperfect
knowledge. Thus, his account of the policy of such
nobles as the Earls of Lennox and Cassillis, whom
he did not know to have been so deeply pledged
to Henry VIIL, could be given in all good faith,
being as he was in complete ignorance of the real
position in which these nobles stood.1
When all these deductions have been made,
however, the fact remains that Buchanan's History
of his own time is the honest attempt to produce a
1 Considering the severe judgments passed by Pinkerton, Tytler,
and others on the prejudiced inaccuracy of this period of Buchanan's
History, it is remarkable that Professor Brewer, on the authority of the
State Papers of Henry vni., is able to say that " Buchanan's informa-
tion for this portion of his History was evidently derived from trust-
worthy sources". — Reign of Henry VIIL vol. i. p. 557. The above
paragraph was written before I met with this statement of Brewer.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 321
narrative such as he believed would be finally
accepted as just and true. Partisan though he is,
Buchanan's estimates of the chief personages of his
time Ln Scotland display a studious attempt to be
fair, even where his antipathies are strongest. Thus
the character he has given of Arran, the head of
the detested Hamiltons, is that accepted by histo-
rians of the most different ways of thinking. Nor
could we wish anything fairer than his final judg-
ment on the Queen-Regent, Mary of Lorraine. We
have but to compare Buchanan's summing up of
her character and policy with the expressions of
Knox on the same subject, to see the wide dif-
ference in spirit and method between the two
champions of the same faith. Of Cardinal Beaton
Buchanan never speaks but with the utmost scorn
and indignation. We have seen Beaton's deliberate
attempts both in Scotland and elsewhere to have
Buchanan disposed of as a heretic. Buchanan had
therefore special reasons for entertaining no kindly
feelings towards the great Cardinal. But, apart
from personal feeling, Buchanan had certainly ample
justification in denouncing Beaton as the most un-
scrupulous public man of his day in Scotland. A
recent discovery has shown that Beaton was cap-
able, to the full, of all that his worst enemies laid
to his charge. Buchanan, as well as Knox, relates
that on the death of James v. the Cardinal pro-
duced a forged will, in which James was made
to appoint himself and three others as tutors or
guardians to the infant Queen. By this arrange-
ment the chief power in the country would have
been placed in Beaton's hands. This story has
been questioned by certain writers, though it was
x
322 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
confirmed by the positive testimony of the Regent
Arran.1 But the recent discovery of the forged
instrument among the Hamilton papers now places
Beaton's guilt beyond question.2 It should be said
that Buchanan's method all through his History is
in the first place to present his own opinion with
all the clearness and emphasis of which he is master.
Where he was aware that wide difference of opinion
existed regarding any person or event, some letter
or speech is introduced which exhibits the argu-
ments of the other side. These arguments certainly
lose nothing of their force as he states them. It
is evident, indeed, that it is a matter of conscience
with him to put the case of his adversaries in the
best light. The most notable example of this is
the message that Mary is made to put into the
mouth of her French envoy after her marriage with
Both well. All that can be said for Mary is there
put with a force and ingenuity which none of her
modern advocates has surpassed.
It has already been said that from Buchanan's
sketch of his own time we gain no adequate con-
ception of the significance and scope of the great
Protestant revolution in Scotland. Of this the
best evidence is the strangely insignificant place his
narrative assigns to Knox. For us, Knox is by far
the most important figure of his time in Scotland.
In Buchanan's History his name occurs only four
times, the reference on each occasion being of the
most casual kind. He is first mentioned as de-
nouncing the impiety of his fellow-inmates in the
castle of St. Andrews previous to its capture by the
1 Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. iii. chap. i.
2 Historical Manuscripts Commission. The Manuscripts of the
Duke of Hamilton, K.T., pp. 205-220. The editor regards the forgery as
incontestable.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 323
French. We next hear of him in 1559 as addressing
his famous sermon to the inhabitants of Perth. He
is again referred to as delivering an " excellent
sermon " 1 at Stirling in the same year, which had
the effect " of uplifting the minds of many with the
sure hope of a speedy escape from present evils ".
Lastly, at the coronation of James vi. he is again
represented as delivering " an excellent sermon ".
On each occasion the reference made to him is con-
tained in a single sentence. As has already been
pointed out, Knox in his History of the Reforma-
tion speaks of Buchanan in the most respectful and
admiring terms, and there is no reason to believe
that Buchanan of deliberate intention kept silence
regarding the great part played by Knox among^his
contemporaries. The truth probably is that in
Buchanan's eyes Knox was not the commanding
figure he now appears to us. By their contempo-
raries, indeed, there can be no doubt that Buchanan,
with his European reputation, was considered much
the more distinguished man of the two. It is'more
probable than not that for Buchanan, with his
humanistic instincts and his scholar's training, there
was much in Knox that repelled rather than
attracted him. That a popular preacher and (as
he must have regarded him) a somewhat ignorant
theologian should be reckoned a great historic
figure, would probably have appeared to Buchanan
as something of an absurdity.2
1 Concio luculenta is the phrase.
2 Buchanan's History ends before the death of Knox. In his edition
of Knox's History Mr. David Laing points out that the reformer in all
probability obtained from Buchanan his account of the death of
Francis n. Mr. Laing was also of opinion that the Scots translation of
the Latin verses in the same passage was supplied to Knox by
Buchanan. The Scots version would certainly do no discredit to
Buchanan. — Lakig's Knox, vol. ii. pp. 134-136.
324 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
In the twentieth and last book of Buchanan's
History the most notable and characteristic passage
is the speech of Morton before Elizabeth's Council,
in which he justifies the proceedings of James's
supporters against Mary. As the speech is mainly a
reproduction of the arguments ofiheDeJureRegni,it
is unnecessary to repeat them here. In Buchanan's
narrative Morton is represented as restating this
defence before the Convention of Estates on his
return to Scotland. Since Buchanan, as Keeper
of the Privy Seal, sat as a member of the Conven-
tion, it is possible that he may have been present
when Morton gave the account of his mission.
We know, indeed, from the comparison of other
reports given by Buchanan that in the case of con-
temporaries these long speeches are really based on
what was actually said. The speech of Morton
may therefore be regarded as the manifesto of the
King's party, and as possessing a real historic value,
in placing the policy of the Protestant party in the
best light of which it was capable.
Buchanan's History closes with the death of the
Regent Lennox and the appointment of his suc-
cessor Mar. As in November 1579 his work still
engaged him, the pen would seem literally to have
fallen from his hand. Had he been able to continue
his narrative over the Regency of Morton, it is pro-
bable that he would not have spared that nobleman,
of whose policy he so strongly disapproved.1 His
work was published at Edinburgh in 1582, the very
1 Buchanan disapproved of Morton's policy, but it appears that he
had also reasons for personal dislike of the Regent. Certain of his
merciless critics, therefore, suggested that he closed his History where
he did that Morton might not have a place in his work. But, as Irving
has said, " the completion of his History and the termination of his life
took place about the very same period ". — Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 303.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 325
year of his death. The next year another edition
was published at Geneva, and the year following
a third at Frankfort. Four editions in all appeared
during the sixteenth century, nine in the seven-
teenth, and three in the eighteenth — the last in
1762. A translation into Scots was made by John
Reid or Reed, who is described by Calderwood as
"servitur and writer to Mr. George Buchanan".
Many translations continued to be made both in
England and Scotland during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. An English translation pub-
lished in 1690 passed through no fewer than seven
editions. As Buchanan anticipated, his work was
received with indignation by a certain section of
his countrymen. Even in the eighteenth century,
writers of opposite political views from his own
accused him of manipulating Scottish history to
support his own theories, and to justify the party
to which he belonged. As we know, historians of
a later day than Buchanan's have been accused of
similar motives without being stigmatised as mis-
creants. But in the heated political controversies
of the last century, Buchanan's hereditary opponents
did not stop short of this. It has already been
told that Buchanan's History and De Jure Regni
were condemned by Parliament in 1584. His
pupil James, as was to be expected, regarded his
master's work with horror, and lost no occasion of
denouncing its untrustworthiness as a record of
Scottish affairs. When he recommends his son
Henry to read the history of his own country, he
warns him that it must not be " those scandalous
libels of Buchanan, which whoever may have in his
hands, even in your days, let him feel the weight of
326 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
my laws". James is probably responsible for a
story told by Camden,1 to the effect that as his
death approached Buchanan expressed his sorrow
for having maligned Mary. What truth is in this
story will be seen from the testimony, afterwards to
be quoted, of one who had certainly the best oppor-
tunity of knowing.2
By his contemporaries Buchanan's History was
regarded as a work of the first order. Even into
the eighteenth century it was seriously debated
whether Caesar, or Livy, or Sallust was to be con-
sidered his model. By almost universal consent he
was acknowledged to have equalled or even sur-
passed his masters. But the finest contemporary
tribute paid to Buchanan's work is that of de Thou,
whose opinion carries the greater weight that his
own History of his time was long the source at
which every practical statesman sought political
wisdom. " In his old age," he says, " Buchanan
undertook a History, which he wrote with such
purity, sagacity, and insight (although from that
inborn love of liberty, peculiar to his nation, some-
what severe on the pride of kings), that his work
seems the production, not of one trained in the dust
of the schools, but of one who has passed his life in
the conduct of affairs ".3 Archbishop Usher also said
" that no one had investigated his country's anti-
quities more thoroughly than Buchanan".4 This
note of praise was maintained for fully a century and
a half after his death ; and the following passage
from Dryden shows in what estimation Buchanan's
History was held a century after its publication : —
1 Annales, vol. i. p. 130 (Hearne's ed.) 2 See next chapter.
3 Hist, sui Temporis, vol. iv. p. 99.
4 Epist. de Brit. Ecdes. Primordiis, c. 16.
HIS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 327
" Buchanan, for the purity of his Latin, and for his
learning, and for all other endowments belonging to
an historian, might be placed among the greatest, if
he had not leaned too much to prejudice, and too
manifestly declared himself a party of a cause,
rather than an historian of it. Excepting only that
(which I desire not to urge too far in so great a
man, but only to give caution to his readers con-
cerning it), our isle may justly boast in him a
writer comparable to any of the moderns, and ex-
celled by few of the ancients."1 Such being the
fame of Buchanan and his work, it is not wonderful
that the history of Scotland became a subject of
interest to educated Europe. What Scott did for
his country in the nineteenth century, Buchanan
did as effectively in the seventeenth and eighteenth.
In the present century Buchanan's classical Latin
stands him in little stead, and his work is now
estimated on its bare merits as a national record.
As such, it has met with but scant approval
even from writers most kindly disposed to him.
" Buchanan's History," says Hill Burton, " stands
among those remarkable instances where the
author's estimate of his own works is inverted by
public opinion. His Psalms, and all the poetry for
which his name is illustrious, he spoke of as fugitive
trifles when weighed with that effort which is of
little more use and value than as a bulky exercise
in the composition of classical Latin."2 For all
popular purposes Buchanan's History is for ever
superseded ; but to speak of it "as of no more use
1 Dryden, Life of Plutarch. (Works, vol. xvii. p. 58, Scott's edit.,
Edin. 1821.)
2 History of Scotland, vol. v. p. 479, ed. 1870. Burton expresses a
somewhat different opinion elsewhere (ibid. vol. iii. p. 101 note, ed. 1872).
328 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
and value than as a bulky exercise in the composi-
tion of Latin " is a somewhat unguarded expression.
A work which could call forth such judgments as
those of men like de Thou and Dry den must always
remain something more than what Burton calls it.
Moreover, as has already been more than once
stated, Buchanan's narrative can never be neglected
by any one who wishes to place himself in contact
with the mind and heart of Scotland during the
sixteenth century.
But granting Burton's judgment to be correct,
it still remains the fact that few histories have
maintained a permanence of interest to be com-
pared with Buchanan's. If we put the classical
histories aside, which owe their perennial interest to
many other reasons besides their intrinsic literary
value, it is astonishingly few of which it can be said
that they have been read with interest by educated
Europe for nearly two centuries. Yet this was the
fortune of Buchanan's History of Scotland — the
materials of which, be it remarked, possessed in
themselves no superiority of interest or importance.
We shall best judge of the significance of this
statement, if we remember what place is now held
by the famous Histories of Buchanan's countrymen,
Hume and Robertson. These Histories were re-
garded by contemporaries as in the highest order
of their kind. Yet the single century that has
elapsed since their appearance has effaced them as
completely as the Latin History of Buchanan.
Nay, for the purpose of the specialist, Buchanan's
History must at the present day be deemed of
higher value than the Histories of Robertson and
Hume.
CHAPTER XIX.
CORRESPONDENCE.
IT has already been said that Buchanan counted
among his correspondents men of the first rank in
letters and affairs. Without some acquaintance
with his correspondence, therefore, we can hardly
form an adequate estimate of the place he held in
the minds of his contemporaries. In the case of
Buchanan, also, his correspondence is specially
needed for a fair judgment of his character. His
set literary performances are either purely imper-
sonal, such as his poem on the Sphere, or merely
conventional, such as a large number of his minor
poems, or, lastly, controversial, as the De Jure
Regni. In comparatively little of his work, prose or
verse, does he speak without some disturbing mo-
tive that partially obscures him behind mere tem-
porary circumstance. In his letters we see him in
his relation with friends or sympathisers ; and both
from his own and those of his correspondents we
receive an impression which in many respects
exhibits him in an entirely new light. If we
may judge from the few that have come down to
us, Buchanan's letters differ from the typical letters
of the humanists in not being mere exercises in
330 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
imitation of Cicero or Pliny. In all of them he
has something to say, and he says it shortly and
pointedly, with none of that nourish of phrase
which the humanists were apt to affect. Those of his
letters which we possess were all written after his
final return to Scotland, and this may partly account
for the fact that they contain none of those sallies
we naturally look for in the correspondence of a
man like Buchanan. " Calm of mind, all passion
spent," is their prevailing note. Yet, at the same
time, they leave us with the clearest impression of
an essentially elevated and benignant nature. Only
such a nature could have preserved in the most
advanced age and broken health the genial interest
which Buchanan never failed to show in his young
fellow-countrymen. It will be seen that often his
sole motive in taking up his pen was either to en-
courage them in the pursuit of learning and virtue,
or to commend them to the interest of his friends
abroad.
In Euddiman's edition of Buchanan's Correspon-
dence, there are forty-one letters in all, of which
only fourteen are Buchanan's own. From his own
words we gather that he must have written many
more. As they were in Latin, however, we have
not perhaps the same reason to regret their loss.
What we must regret is, that only two in Scots have
been preserved.1 In selecting for translation the
letters that follow, we shall be guided solely by their
biographical value.
The following letter to Pierre Daniel, a French
scholar of some repute, and one of Buchanan's
1 Only one of these is given in Ruddiman. See his General Intro-
duction to his edition of Buchanan's Works.
HES CORRESPONDENCE. 331
most respected friends, is dated Edinburgh, 1566.
" What with ill- health and my duties at Court, I
have hardly been able to steal a moment either for
my friends or myself. Hence my rare letters to my
friends, as also the fact that my poems are still un-
collected. As far as I myself am concerned, I made
no great efforts to preserve them. The truth is,
that their subjects are mostly so trifling, that now,
in my old age, I am half ashamed and half chagrined
at ever having written them. At the importunities
of friends (Pierre Mondord in special), however, to
whom I neither can nor should refuse what they ask,
I have at odd times brought together some of my
poems, and arranged them under different heads.
At present I send you one book of Elegies, one of
Silvae, and one of Hendecasyllabics. Pray be good
enough to show them at your leisure to Mondore* or
de Mesmes, and other learned friends, and do nothing
without their advice. I hope some day soon to send
you a book of Iambics, one of Epigrams, and another
of Odes, and perhaps some other pieces of the same
kind. These also I should like you to submit to
our friends, as I have made up my mind to be
guided by their judgment rather than my own. I
have corrected many errata in my Psalter, and have
also made certain changes in my text. When you
treat with Estienne, therefore, you will tell him not
to issue a new edition without consulting me. I
have not had leisure to complete my second book of
the Sphere, so that I have not as yet made a copy
of the first."
This letter was addressed to Daniel in Orleans,
where, it would appear, there was a colony of
Scotsmen. In the letter addressed to Buchanan
332 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
from Orleans, following the one just quoted, the
writer says that he is on intimate terms with
" Gordon, Cunningham, Guthrie, and other Scottish
youths devotedly attached to Buchanan". On
the strength of his acquaintance with Buchanan's
friends, he asks him for any emendation of the text
of Caesar that may have occurred to him. Failing
Caesar, his correspondent will be glad to have sug-
gestions regarding the text of any Latin author.
In return for this favour, he undertakes to keep
Buchanan informed on matters of general interest,
although, he adds, this is somewhat unnecessary, as
" many correspondents are continually in communi-
cation with you". Buchanan's astronomical poem, he
also tells him, is eagerly expected by everybody.
Buchanan's next letter is addressed to Daniel
Rogers, an ardent Protestant, and a person of some
standing at the English Court, as is proved by his
frequent embassies to the Continent. He seems to
have been one of Buchanan's closest friends, and
Buchanan exchanged more letters with him than
with any other of his correspondents. The following
letter refers to the proposed marriage between
Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, and it shows the
keen interest Buchanan took in the political life of
the day. It is dated Leith, 1571. "I received
your letter three months after it was written — for
which very many thanks. As occasion serves you, I
wish you would keep me informed of the state of
affairs in France. Although the new match is now
given out almost for a certainty, I cannot think
that it will really take place. Such ill results must
follow this marriage, that France and England
both could hardly survive it. It would so compro-
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 333
mise the interests of religion, and raise such a strife
in the neighbouring countries that we have not seen
in our time the confusion that must follow in
Europe. I am astonished that prudent men on both
sides do not see this. If I had only a few hours'
talk with you, I think I could easily show you what
pernicious results will follow from this marriage.
For, not to mention other reasons, if Anjou, when a
simple duke, could not endure his brother to be
greater than himself, how will he feel disposed to
him, when by this marriage he will have such
resources behind him ? Then, though England
bases some hope on the result of a war, in the first
place the result would be uncertain, and, in the
second, such a war would so strain the resources of
both kingdoms that, whichever should have the best
of it, the victory would also mean the ruin of the
victor. Again, if Aegisthus should once cast eyes
on Clytemnestra,1 he is simply blind who does not
see that this would threaten the ruin of the
English queen. As regards our affairs in Scotland,
if any of your countrymen do not see that it is
your queen's interest more than ours, that the
honester party here should hold the power, him also
I hold equally purblind. If any one see this and
yet conceal his opinion, he is even more a traitor to
his own country than an enemy of ours. Our affairs
are now in such a state that the very show of
assistance on your part would be enough to put
down our common enemies. If this opportunity
should be lost, I fear there will be no occasion for our
appealing to you again. I was delighted to hear what
you had to say regarding the state of religion and
1 The reference is, of course, to Mary and the Duke of Norfolk.
334 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
letters. When you write to me, direct your letters
to the Countess of Lennox, the relative of your
queen, and wife of our Regent, at the English Court.
In this way they will reach me most directly."
The following letter is dated Stirling, and,
from internal evidence, must be referred to the year
1571. It is addressed to a countryman of his own,
Henry Scrimgeour, who was settled in Geneva as
a professor of Civil Law. The letter will explain
itself. " You have more than once heard from me
during the last two years how eager Lennox, our
late Regent, was to make your acquaintance, and
what generous offers he enjoined me to make you. It
was his intention not only to assign you some public
office, and to treat you liberally, but also, as far as
his leisure from public business would permit, to
refresh himself with the pleasure of your society.
Lennox died lately, but his successor, the Earl of
Mar, is even more urgent, and for the same reason
as his predecessor. He also promises to make you
a partaker in all his good fortune. But even if
these promises should not be fulfilled, it would
hardly become a man of your virtue and learning
and knowledge of affairs to refuse his offer, were it
only for the sake of your country, to whose interests
you cannot be wanting without actual criminality.
Nor do I consider it necessary here to remind you,
versed as you are in all Christian and Pagan wisdom,
what your country, your friends, and your kindred
have a right to demand of you. Much less need I
recall to you the examples of those who, in the hour
of their country's trial, gladly gave their lives in its
interest. This only I will add to what I have
already said in my former letters. If anything in
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 335
the past (as I have never doubted) could in some
measure delay your decision, every excuse of that
kind is now removed. Our prospects are now some-
what brighter, and we have at our head a man who
is not only better known to you than his predecessor,
but in whom you can place even more implicit con-
fidence. Does not the same reason also urge you to
this step as that which moved the illustrious Epam-
inondas, who deliberately chose to remain childless
in order that when the need should arise, he might
more freely give his life for his country ? But if
you are one of those who set greater store by lucra-
tive ease than honourable employment, still, neither
the high reputation you have gained by so many
years of foreign travel, nor the distinction of your
family, nor the just solicitations of your country, can
allow you to yield to such poor-spirited suggestions,
unless you wish to forfeit at one stroke all the
honour of your past life. ... Of my zealous affection
towards you I shall say nothing at present, nor of
Peter Young, whose attentions to me are such
that I have come to think him as much my own
kinsman as yours. Pray salute Beza and Henri
Estienne in my name. Our friend Knox is still in
life, but he is fast hastening to its term." In spite
of Buchanan's urgency, Scrimgeour did not respond
to his appeal, alleging old age and the troubles in
Scotland as his sufficient excuse. To Buchanan, he
states these excuses in a long Latin letter ; to the
Regent Mar himself, in Scots.
The following letter of Beza to Buchanan will
show the relations that existed between them. It
is dated Geneva, 1572. "I was unwilling to let
slip the present opportunity of writing to you,
336 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
partly that you may know with what fidelity I hold
you in remembrance and with what reverence I
ever regard you, and partly that I might congratu-
late yourself, or, to speak more truly, every one of
your countrymen, on the circumstance which you
mentioned to our friend Scrimgeour — that to you
has been assigned the charge of the King, who even
already, while yet a child, has given such proofs of
piety and every excellence as to raise the highest
hopes for the future wellbeing of himself and
your whole nation. Heaven grant that the same
event may not happen in your case which in former
times befell your neighbour England!1 But rather
let this be your lot, that Scotland, having obtained
a king adorned with every gift of mind and person,
may at length, after her protracted wars and re-
verses, enjoy the benefit of sacred peace. As for our
own affairs, Scrimgeour, as I hope, will give you full
information. I am immensely delighted with your
version of the Psalms. But though they are such
as could have come from you alone, I yet wish
(what would be a very easy matter for you) that
you would perfect those which are already good, or,
as I should rather say, improve that which is
already perfect."
The following letter shows the kindly interest
Buchanan took in the younger generation of his
fellow-countrymen, and how he made his great
reputation abroad serve their interests. It is
addressed to Monsieur de Sigongues, Chevalier de
1'Ordre, et Capitane et Gouverneur de la Ville et
Chasteau de Dieppe. This Sigongues, it may be
said, was at one time an agent of the French
1 The reference is, of course, to Edward vi.
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 337
Government in Scotland. We give the letter in
the original French, as the only specimen we possess
of Buchanan's acquaintance with that language.
From other sources we know that he spoke French
fluently. " Monsieur, ce que j'ay tant differ^ de
vous escrire a estd pour 1'occasion des troubles qui
ont universellement regne, tant en ces quartiers,
qu'en la France, au grand prejudice des deux roy-
almes. Et comme par la grace de Dieu nous avons
en la fin quelque relasche de nos maux, il me semble
(je le dis avec regret) que les vostres ne font que
recommencer. Mais pour laisser ce propos, la pre-
sente sera pour me recommander humblement a
vostre bonne grace, ensemble ce present Porteur
Thomas Fairlie, qui est fort de mes amys, et autant
amy qu'ayme' de tous les miens. Le bien et plaisir
que vous luy ferez, je 1'estimeray fait a moy mesme,
comme je fais celuy qu'avez par le passe fait a tous
ceux que je vous ay recommande', qui se louent
grandement de vostre faveur, pour laquelle je vous
demeure tres oblige ; vous asseurant, Monsieur, que
si je puys quelque chose pour vous par deca, ou
pour les vostres, que vous me pouvez livrement com-
mander, comme celui qui sera tousjours prest a vous
obeyer et fair service. A Sterlin, ce dousieme de
Janvier, 1573, Celui qui est de tout vostre,
" GEORGE BUCHANAN."
One of the most distinguished of Buchanan's
correspondents was the Danish astronomer, Tycho
Brand ; but the following letter of Buchanan's is
the only memorial of their intercourse that has been
preserved. In 1590, when King James visited
Tycho in his castle of Uranienburg, he saw the
338 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
portrait of Buchanan in the library. Sir Peter
Young, Buchanan's assistant in the education of
James, had presented it in one of his embassies to
the Court of Denmark.1 Buchanan's letter is dated
Stirling, 1576 : "Another year has already passed,
most learned Tycho, since William Lumsdale, on his
return from Denmark, brought me your book, De
Nova Stella. For many reasons your gift was most
grateful to me, but above all because it came from
you, a man, that is to say, illustrious by descent
and genius, and equally remarkable for his accom-
plishments, who has raised from its low estate, and
transported from the sordid hands of the vulgar to
its true home, the palace, that part of philosophy,
which in the words of your favourite Manilius,
' Regales animos primum dignata movere,
Proxima tangentes rerum fastigia coelo.'
Great as is your gift, your kindness and courtesy
have still more increased its value. From the
height where rank and learning alike place you, not
only have you cast favourable eyes on my humble
self (penitus penitusque jacentes], but by your own
example you encourage me also Nube vehi, vali-
disque humeris insistere Atlantis, and by the monu-
ments of your own industry refute that false
though generally received opinion, that under our
cold northern sky men's minds are doomed by
nature to lethargy. Since every northern people is
thus so deeply in your debt, and I myself most of
all, you will not, I trust, think me guilty of rude-
ness because I have not acknowledged your gift till
now. All who know me are well aware how far
any such rudeness is from my character and con-
1 Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 200.
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 339
stant habit. My friends also know how, during
the last two years, my life has been a constant
battle with the most serious illnesses, and that I
have had hardly an hour at my disposal for corre-
spondence. I have, therefore, been forced not only
to give up my lighter tasks, but also to leave half
finished my five books on the Sphere, and finally to
abandon the hope of producing a poem worthy to
preserve my name with posterity. Yourself I con-
gratulate on a rank due to your ancestors, on
your genius, the gift of nature, and your learning
acquired while still in the prime of life by your own
labour and zeal. Though myself reduced to the
helpless torpor of age, I shall gladly applaud you
who are still in the course ; and any services
besides, which you may ask of me, I shall be grati-
fied to perform to the extent of my ability. I
have requested William Lumsdale, the bearer of
this letter, carefully to inform me of the state of
your affairs. I would also request that with your
usual courtesy and kindly zeal you would help him
to recover, if possible, a small sum of money which
is due to him."
In the letter which follows we again see
Buchanan in the character which his age and repu-
tation entitled him so gracefully to assume — that
of general mentor to the thoughtful young Scots-
men of the time. Neither the date nor the person
addressed is known. " I received your letter some
days since. I received it with much pleasure for
many reasons, but specially because you were the
writer, and because it gave no mean proof of your
capacity, as well as a sure hope that in no long time
your country will reap the happiest fruits from the
340 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
same soil. Moreover, by the same letter it seems
to me that you have, as it were, bound yourself by
a pledge to future usefulness. When such a
foundation is laid, it can be only your own sloth if
the rest of the building do not correspond. Surely
it is not likely that you alone, to the extent of your
other good qualities and gifts of person and fortune,
will be found wanting when nature has supplied all
the rest. I wish you, therefore, not only to lay
seriously to heart what you owe to yourself, your
friends, and your kinsmen, but meanwhile to re-
member that I also, who hold you bound by such
a pledge, will never cease to remind you of your
duty, as knowing that good things do not usually
become bad by their being called such. But if you
should disappoint our hopes, although many will
grieve along with me, yet my sorrow will be so
much greater than that of everybody else, because
I feel myself bound to you for so many more
reasons. But if, as all desire, you shall achieve
what is worthy of yourself, you will at once give a
common pleasure to myself and others, and do what
is worthy of your descent, and thus renew the
ancient lustre of your family, whose glory it is
incumbent on you to serve. I would have you
especially to remember that in this same race for
glory you have a competitor (the King himself, I
mean), your equal in genius, but younger than your-
self in years, and in his tender age even more
engrossed by the attentions of flatterers than your-
self, who in your quiet retreat, free from all solici-
tude, ought to give yourself up to study both out of
respect for yourself and from the inspiring example
of others. I add no more, lest I should seem to
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 341
imply doubt of your character and talents." No-
thing could show more forcibly than this letter the
eager interest Buchanan took in the generation
rising around him. A significant reference to this
trait in his character occurs in another letter, in
which one of his correspondents refers to George
Keith (son of the Earl Marischal), a young man in
whom Buchanan seems also to have taken an
interest, as being well aware that " Buchanan was
always ready to seek the friendship of good men,
and that no one could be more faithful in the dis-
charge of the duties of friendship "-1
We have seen Buchanan recommending the
young Huguenot, Jerome Groslot, to Beza. In the
following letter we have Beza similarly recommend-
ing another young man to Buchanan : " Not so long
since, my Buchanan, I sought to renew our friend-
ship by writing to you. You will now see what
trust I place in your goodwill to me, when I actu-
ally take the liberty of recommending my friends
to you.2 The youth who bears this letter comes of
a distinguished family, and is the son of a father
held by us in the highest esteem. On his being
sent on a mission to your king I deemed it my
duty to make him acquainted with yourself, that by
your counsel and authority he may be stimulated,
young as he is, and in a foreign land, to persevere in
that course of piety and virtue on which he has
already entered. Although I have no doubt that
as a true lover of all good men you would of your
own accord have done this kindness, yet I persuaded
myself that on my recommendation of this young
1 Epist. xviii.
2 Buchanan's letter recommending Groslot was written after the above.
342 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
man you will do so even more gladly, and with
still greater eagerness to serve him. I earnestly
request that you will not deceive me in this my
hope. As for myself, I am as well as men of my
age usually are. I suffer not so much from my
labours, though of these I have undergone not a
few, as from chronic vexation of spirit, for which
there is too great justification. For how can I for-
bear to indulge my grief for the Churches in France,
so cruelly persecuted, spoiled, and oppressed ? I
confess myself unable to bear with becoming
patience this heavy visitation, yet it is my hope
that God will in brief space ordain its end, and
so restore me to a happier frame of mind. Pray
God, therefore, for me, dearest brother, that I
may happily finish the course I have yet to run,
as I in turn pray Him that He may bless with in-
creasing blessing the happiness of your old age."
The letter which follows is perhaps the highest
tribute ever paid to the character and career of
Buchanan, and it is the tribute of one who was
himself among the noblest spirits of his age — Hubert
Languet, the revered friend and mentor of Sir
Philip Sidney. To Languet himself, it will be
remembered, Sidney in the Arcadia expresses his
deepest debt :
" The song I sang old Languet had me taught —
Languet, the shepherd best swift Ister knew
For clerkly reed, and hating what is naught,
For faithful heart, clean hands, and mouth as true.
With his sweet skill my skill-less youth he drew
To have a feeling taste of Him that sits
Beyond the heavens, far more beyond our wits."
Buchanan and Languet were in many respects
kindred spirits. They thought alike in religion and
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 343
politics,1 they had both the same impetuous temper,
and they both showed the same vehemence in their
denunciation of what they deemed tyranny or irre-
ligion. From Languet's letter it will be seen that
he regarded Buchanan with much the same feelings
as Sidney regarded himself : " So well are you
known to the whole Christian world by your virtue
and the many monuments of your genius, that there
is hardly a lover of learning and sound instruction
who does not pay you the tribute of his ardent
reverence and admiration. I count it my great
happiness that in Paris some twenty years since it
was my good fortune not only to see you and to
enjoy the benefit of your learning and the delightful
charm of your conversation, but also to entertain
you as my guest along with others of the highest
distinction, Turnebe, Dorat, and others. We then
heard much from you to our utmost profit and
delight. Of all this I now write to see whether I
can recall to you who I am. But be I who I may,
be certain that your virtues are my profoundest
admiration. For many years I lived with Philip
Melanchthon, and I then thought myself happy.
On his death, after many vicissitudes, I at length
came to this country as to a safe port, finding none
safer elsewhere, though here also for many years
the storms of civil war have been raging. Never-
theless, amid these storms the light of the Gospel is
shining, and the true way of salvation is preached
to us, and superstition driven out of the churches
to the great indignation of Spain, which is still
1 Languet was supposed to be the author of the famous political
tract Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, which advocates much the same doc-
trine as Buchanan's De Jure Regni. The authorship of this tract is still
under discussion.
344 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
under its dominion. It was by the command of the
Prince of Orange, the chiefest ornament of our age,
that I came here with himself. By his courage and
genius he has till now so successfully coped with
the mighty resources of the Spanish king that he
has won for himself undying fame. Under him as
their leader, these provinces, after their rupture from
the tyranny of Spain, have with happy auspices set
up other states and churches, and by their confede-
ration hitherto withstood the arms of the enemy.
The king of Spain, after vainly attempting for
many years to put the Prince down by force, has at
length had recourse to weapons which seem hardly
to become so great a king. He has published a
document in which he denounces him as an outlaw,
and by the offer of rewards encourages his assassina-
tion. As in that document there are many false
charges against the Prince, his friends urged him to
publish a manifesto (which I herewith send^you) as
a reply to the calumnies of the Spaniards. I have
spent this last winter in these marshes of the
Netherlands, which seem more fitted to be the
abodes of frogs and eels than of human beings.
This, however, is a very fine town.1 At a distance
of some three hours' journey is Leyden, where are
to be found Justus Lipsius, the poet Douza5iand the
French jurisconsult Donellus, all of them men of
learning and reputation. By going outside the
town we at once come in view of Rotterdam, the
sight of which recalls not only the great Erasmus,
the boast of his fellow-citizens, but yourself also,
since I can never cease wondering that such countries
and climates can give birth to men whose equals in
1 Delft, in the Netherlands.
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 345
genius can nowhere be found among their contem-
poraries. Erasmus was invited to undertake the
education of Ferdinand, the brother of the Emperor
Charles, but refused the task. You I count both
more fortunate and more noble in consenting to the
request of your countrymen to imbue the youthful
mind of your prince with precepts which, if his
manhood follow them, will lead to the highest
happiness of himself and his subjects. I am
extremely eager to learn, if I am not too
curious, when we may look for your History of
Scotland. You will learn from Melville, a man
of the highest character, how things are at present
with myself."
The last letter but one1 of Buchanan is ad-
dressed to his old friend and colleague, Elie Vinet.
Their friendship, begun at Bordeaux, had been
cemented by common dangers and misfortunes at
Coimbra. The two friends, it appears, were in
the habit of exchanging letters once a year through
the wine-merchants who traded between Scotland
and Bordeaux. It should be said that Vinet was
now at the head of the College de Guyenne,
in Bordeaux. " When our merchants from Bor-
deaux bring me tidings of you, it rejoices my
heart, and my youth seems to return, for then I
learn that a remnant still survives of our notable
Portuguese expedition. Now in my seventy -
fifth year, I sometimes recall through what cares
and toils (passing every port where men are wont
to find joy and refreshment) I have in my voyage of
life at length struck on that rock beyond which, as
it is most truly said in the ninetieth psalm, nothing
1 At least of those that we possess.
346 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
remains but labour and sorrow. The memory of
friends, of whom you are almost the only survivor —
this is now my one consolation. You, though
I believe as advanced in years as myself, are still
able to give your fellow-citizens the benefit of your
labour and your wisdom. I have long bidden farewell
to literature ; and my only thought now is, with as
little noise as possible, to leave a generation with
which I am no longer in sympathy — as one dead,
that is to say, to leave the haunts of the living.
Meanwhile I send you the last-born of my little
books. When you see its clear proofs of my dotage,
you will have no great desire to see its fellows. I
hear that a young Scotsman, by name Harry Ward-
law, and come of a good stock, is at present in Bor-
deaux prosecuting his studies with some success.
Although I know well your unfailing kindness and
courtesy, and though you are aware that foreigners
have a peculiar claim upon you, still I wish the
young man to understand what our ancient friend-
ship avails with you." De Thou tells us that, when
he was in Bordeaux, Vinet showed him this very
letter of Buchanan. It was written, he says, " in a
trembling hand but in a magnanimous spirit", the
writer " complaining not so much of the irksomeness
of old age, as of the weariness of a life prolonged
beyond its due limits ". De Thou was especially
struck by one sentence in the letter, which he says
he always preserved in his memory : " Nunc id
unum satago, ut minimo cum strepitu, ex inaequa-
lium meorum, hoc est, mortuus e vivorum con-
tubernio demigrem."1
To this letter of Buchanan Vinet replies as
1 De Thou, Commentar. de Vila Sua, lib. ii.
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 347
follows : — " Your letter, dated 16th March, reached
me on the 3rd of June. Nothing could well give
me greater pleasure than a letter from yourself, now
so far down the vale of years, with seas between us,
and so many a day since we met. And that men-
tion of our Portuguese journey, and those times
when we were far happier than now ! I have read it
again and again, as likewise the book that accom-
panied it. If I may trust my own judgment and
that of friends, many of whom are your own former
scholars, it was no ' dotard ' that wrote it. I hear,
however, that a countryman of your own, a coun-
cillor of Poitou, is of a different opinion. He has
written a book, which I shall send you as soon as it
is published in Poitou. Of the companion volumes,
which you say I am desirous of seeing, I know
nothing ; but George Buchanan's Tragedies, Psalms,
Elegies, and Epigrams, are for sale here. Many
persons here, myself not least, are looking for your
Sphere, which we are told you composed some time
since ; but perhaps it is not quite ready for publica-
tion. My own treatises of which you speak are
merely elementary, and are intended for the use of
my pupils. If you doubt this, the commentary on
the Somnium Scipionis, which I send you with the
letters of Gelida, will satisfy you. As regards
Henry Wardlaw, whom you so warmly commend to
me, since I made your acquaintance here, and came
to know your character and attainments, I have for
your sake loved and cherished all your countrymen,
and done all in my power (limited as it is) to
advance their interests. Our school is rarely
without a Scotsman. At present we have two,
348 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
one a professor of philosophy, the other of
Greek and mathematics, both men of learning and
character, and acceptable to the students. Fare-
well ! Look henceforward for many letters from me
as I have opportunity of sending them."
CHAPTER XX.
LAST DAYS CONCLUSION.
DURING the last years of his life Buchanan lived
mainly in Edinburgh, in what part of the town no
tradition has reached us.1 At Sheriff hall, in the
parish of Newton, near Dalkeith, however, a room
is still shown where he is said to have written part
of his History.2 Fortunately, just one year before
his death, he received a visit, which has been
described for us with a minuteness and fidelity of
detail that make it by far the most valuable con-
temporary notice of Buchanan we possess. In Sep-
tember 1581, the diarist James Melville, with his
uncle, Andrew Melville, and Buchanan's own cousin,
Thomas Buchanan, crossed from St. Andrews to
Edinburgh with the express purpose of visiting the
old scholar. Melville has devoted a page of his
diary to an account of this visit,3 which is not only
a vivid page of biography, but has in it a strain that
1 But see note to page 353.
2 As being on the lands adjoining Dalkeith, the house in which
Buchanan lived at Sheriffhall would belong to the Earl of Morton.
During Morton's regency it was necessary that Buchanan, as Keeper of
the Privy Seal, should be near him ; and we actually have documents,
dated from Dalkeith, with Buchanan's signature attached to them. The
tradition is that it was in the tower of Sheriffhall House, known as the
"Dove-cot", that Buchanan wrote his History. It may be added that
the room where Buchanan lived in St. Andrews is also still shown.
3 Mr. James Melmll's Diary, p. 86, 4to, Edin. 1829.
349
350 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
reminds us of Plutarch at his best. As Buchanan
is here presented to us, we can hardly help recalling
Sir James Melville's description of him as " a stoick
philosopher, who looked not far before him ".
" That September [1581], in tyme of vacans, my
uncle, Mr. Andro, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, and I,
heiring that Mr. George Buchanan was weak and
his Historie under the pres, past ower to Edin-
bruche annes errand, to visit him and sie the wark.
When we cam to his chalmer, we fand him sitting
in his chaire, teatching his young man that servit
him in his chalmer to spell a, b, ab ; e, b, eb, etc.
Efter salutation, Mr. Andro sayes. ' I sie, sir, yie
are nocht ydle.'
' " Better this,' quoth he, ' nor stelling sheipe,
or sitting ydle, qhuilk is als ill.'
" Therefter he schew us the Epistle Dedicatorie
to the King ; the quhilk, when Mr. Andro had read,
he tauld him that it was obscure in sum places, and
wanted certean words to perfyt the sentence.
" Sayes he, c I may do na mair for thinking on
another mater.'
" ' What is that ? ' sayes Mr. Andro.
" 'To die ! ' quoth he ; ' bot I leave that and
manie ma things for you to helpe.'
"We went from him to the printars wark hous,
whom we fand at the end of the 17 buik of his
Cornicle, at a place quhilk we thought verie hard
for the tyme, quhilk might be an occasion of steying
the haill wark, anent the buriall of Davie.1 Therfor,
steying the printer from proceiding, we cam to Mr.
1 David Kizzio. In his History Buchanan states, as one among other
proofs of Mary's guilty relations with Eizzio, that she caused his body to
be removed from the place in which it was first laid, and to be buried in
the tomb of James v.
LAST DAYS. 351
George again, and fund him bedfast by1 his custome,
and asking him, whow he did, ' Even going the way
of weilfare,' sayes he. Mr. Thomas, his cusing,
schawes him of the hardnes of that part of his
Storie, that the King wald be offendit with it, and
it might stey all the wark.
" ' Tell me, man,' sayes he, ' giff I have tauld the
treuthe ? '
" ' Yis,' sayes Mr. Thomas, ' sir, I think sa.'
" ' I will byd his fead, and all his Kins, then,'
quoth he : ' Pray, pray to God for me, and let him
direct all.'
" Sa, be the printing of his Cornicle was endit,
that maist lerned, wyse, and godlie man, endit this
his mortall lyff."
In August 1582, a month before Buchanan's
death, occurred the famous Raid of Ruthven. By
that date he must have been so feeble that he could
take but little interest in an event that threatened
Scotland with another revolution. According to
Camden, the conspirators tried to win him to their
side, but failed.2 This is improbable. If Buchanan
was able to take any interest whatever in the affair,
all his past record leads us to conclude that his
sympathies would be against the favourites of the
King, and the policy they had been teaching him.
As in the case of every Protestant of eminence,
many foolish stories came to be circulated by Roman
Catholic writers regarding Buchanan's last days.3
It is needless to say that these stories rest on no
satisfactory evidence, and that they are stupidly
inconsistent with the character of the man they were
1 i.e. contrary to. 2 Annahs, vol. ii. p. 386.
3 Some of these stories are given in Bayle.
352 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
meant to discredit. We have seen from his corre-
spondence that for years he had looked for death
even with longing, as one who had fully accomplished
his work, and to whom life could henceforth be but
" labour and sorrow". Two stories we may accept
as at once in keeping with his character, and as
resting on fair authority. According to Wodrow,
Buchanan was visited towards his end by a Pres-
byterian minister, John Davidson. Buchanan ex-
pressed to him his belief in salvation through the
sacrifice of Christ, but, in the course of the inter-
view, ridiculed, in his usual caustic vein, the
absurdities of the Mass. The other story is thus
told by Mackenzie.1 As will be seen, it is admirably
true to all we know of Buchanan :—
" When Buchanan was dying, he called for Mr.
Young, his servant,2 and asked him how much
money he had of his, and finding that it was not
sufficient for defraying the charges of his burial, he
commanded him to distribute it among the poor.
Upon which Mr. Young asking who then would be
at the charges of burying him, he answered that he
was very indifferent about that, for if he was once
dead, if they would not bury him, they might let
him lie where he was, or throw his corpse where
they pleased ; and that, accordingly, the City of
Edinburgh was obliged to bury him at their own
expenses." This story of Mackenzie is supported
by the fact that in Buchanan's will, it is stated
that his only "goods and gear" in the world is
1 Lives of Scots Writers, vol. iii. p. 172. Mackenzie says that he
had this story also from the Earl of Cromarty, who had it from his
grandfather, Lord Invertyle.
2 This "Mr. Young" is, of course, not to be confounded with Sir
Peter Young, Buchanan's assistant in the education of James.
CONCLUSION. 353
the sum of a hundred pounds due to him from his
Crossraguel pension.1
Buchanan died on the 28th of September 1582,
and was buried on the following day, Saturday, his
funeral being attended "by a great company of the
faithful ".2 The grounds of the Greyfriars had lately
been converted into a public burying-ground, and
Buchanan was " the first person of celebrity " laid
there.3 From a minute in the Town Council
Records of Edinburgh, 1701, it would appear that
at some date a stone must have been placed over his
grave. By that year, however, the stone had sunk
out of sight, and the Council gave orders that it
should be raised, and its inscription renewed.4 At
a later date, the stone seems again to have disap-
peared, as George Chalmers could find no trace of
it.5 Within recent years, however, it was re-dis-
covered, and actually removed and appropriated to
the memory of one of the grave-diggers.6 A simple
tablet marks the spot where Buchanan's grave is
supposed to be,7 and in another part of the church-
1 See Appendix D.
2 Calderwood. I am indebted to Mr. John Taylor Brown for the follow-
ing interesting note : " The following note was extracted about sixty
years ago from a memorandum-book kept by George Paton, the antiquary.
' George Buchanan took his last illness and died in Kennedy's Close, first
court thereof on your left hand, first house in the turnpike above the
tavern there ; and in Queen Ann's time this was told to his family
and friends, who resided in that house, by Sir James Stewart of Good-
trees, Lord Advocate.' Kennedy's Close was the second close above the
Tron Church, and is now absorbed into Hunter Square."
3 David Laing, Introduction to Epitaphs and Monumental Inscrip-
tions in Greyfriars Churchyard (Edin. 1867), p. xxii.
4 It seems, however, that there was no inscription on the stone. —
Ibid. p. xxiii.
5 Chalmers, Life of Ruddiman (Lond. 1794), p. 270 note. Irving,
Memoirs of Buchanan (p. 309 note), is very severe on Chalmers's
unfortunate misreading of Adamson's Epigram, which is not, as he
thought, a monumental inscription.
6 Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions in Greyfriars, p. xxiv.
7 Ibid. p. 18 : "A few years ago, a humble blacksmith erected at
Z
354 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
yard a monument has been erected, consisting of a
large pedestal with a bust of life-size.1 Within the
Old Greyfriars Church itself, a memorial window,
with Buchanan's portrait and the arms of his family,
has also within recent years been erected to his
memory.2 It may be added that what on good
authority is supposed to be Buchanan's skull is
preserved in the Anatomical Museum of the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh. Its general outline is exactly
that of the best portraits, and by its dome-like shape
and extreme tenuity, it has all the marks of a high
cerebral development.3
From the preceding pages it will have suf-
ficiently appeared what manner of man Buchanan
was, and what the scope and general direction of
his life. The type of mind to which he belonged
we can have no difficulty in determining. He was
no religious reformer like Knox, or Calvin, or even
Colet, nor was he a born educationist like Jean
Sturm. He belonged to that class of men who feel
strongly and generously, but who by the mobility
of their feeling and their very keenness of insight
are incapable of being enthusiasts or great practical
reformers.4 During the last quarter of his life he
his own expense the small tablet which now marks the spot where
Buchanan was buried." The grave (regarding which, however, there is
some uncertainty) is near the eastern wall of the churchyard, to the
right of the main entrance.
1 This monument was erected by the late Mr. David Laing, at his
own expense, in 1878. The bust was executed by Mr. D. W. Stevenson,
after the Boissard portrait approved by Drummond and Laing.
2 By the late James Buchanan, Esq., father of the present Member
for Edinburgh.
3 The skull was obtained from Greyfriars by John Adamson, Princi-
pal of the University of Edinburgh. After Adamson's death it became
the property of the University. — Sibbald, Commentarius in Vitam
Georgii Buchanani, p. 62 ; Irving, Memoirs of Buchanan, p. 310.
4 Mark Pattison (Essays, i. 79, Clar. Press, 1889) says of Erasmus
CONCLUSION. 355
was in full sympathy with the Protestant revolu-
tion, and he was profoundly convinced that in a
complete breach with Rome lay the only hope for
the future of Christian Europe. At the same time,
he held these convictions in a fashion very different
from Calvin and Knox. This, indeed, could hardly
have been otherwise, seeing that, till past middle age,
his mind had been far more deeply engaged by the
ideals of humanism than those of religious reform.
The free play of thought and feeling which this
discipline naturally induced made it impossible for
him to be dominated by a single idea like Knox,
or to be a theological doctrinaire like Calvin.
Buchanan spoke with sufficient vehemence of what
he deemed the corruption and false teaching of
Rome ; but we measure the difference between him
and Knox, when we compare their respective treat-
ment of that period of Scottish history in which
they themselves lived and acted. For Knox the
one all-absorbing series of events is the gradual
schism from Rome and the establishment of an
independent Church, based on a purer concep-
tion of the essentials of the Christian teaching.
Buchanan's aim in his History was, of course, a
more general one than that of Knox ; yet, had he
been equally absorbed in the great religious revolu-
tion, he could never have referred to it in the
merely casual way he does.
The truth is, that Buchanan belonged essen-
tially to that class which we now recognise as dis-
tinctively men of letters. He has always passed for
that " the humanist and reformer were pretty well mixed " in him. In
Buchanan, of course, there was still more of the reformer, seeing that he
actually identified himself with the Protestant revolution.
356 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
the most famous scholar whom Scotland has pro-
duced, but from the account that has here been given
of his work it must be clear that Buchanan was
no scholar like Bude, or Casaubon, or the younger
Scaliger. Their life's effort was to add to our
knowledge of classical antiquity. Buchanan was
regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most
learned men of his age ; l but the direction of his
activity was far from being that of the scholar pure
and simple. Buchanan is best described as a man
of letters of the sixteenth century, who used Latin
for the same purpose as a modern writer does his
mother tongue. In his own fashion, Buchanan was
a general critic of men and things, like Erasmus him-
self, though he had neither the range of thought
nor the flexibility or openness of mind which make
Erasmus the supreme type of his class. On the
other hand, Buchanan undoubtedly possessed what
Erasmus with all his gifts cannot claim — a distinc-
tive vein of genius clearly perceptible under all his
foreign guise and artificial inspiration.
We have no detailed account of Buchanan's
relations with a single friend or enemy, such as
enable us to mark those delicate traits that dis-
tinguish men of the same type from each other.
Of his general aims and modes of thought, however,
of the total impression he made on those with
whom he came in contact, we have full material for
forming our judgment. In view of the course the
1 Turnebe bears testimony to Buchanan's minute knowledge of Latin.
(Ruddiman, Buchanani Opera, vol. ii. p. 104). In Greek, Buchanan,
like many of the best scholars of his century, was self-taught. Those
of his contemporaries best entitled to have an opinion, speak of him as
equally learned in Greek and Latin. Buchanan's writings certainly
give the impression of very wide knowledge in all the learning of the
time.
CONCLUSION. 357
world has taken since his day, we are justified in
saying that Buchanan was on the side with which
the best interests of the future lay. In the reform
of studies and religion alike, the part he took gives
him a distinct place in the front rank of the repre-
sentative men of his century. In his own country
his great name and the inspiration of his example
have been among the strongest influences in main-
taining the tradition of the higher studies. For
such studies Scotland has always had the most
meagre provision ; yet in every generation since
Buchanan's day there has never failed a line of
students with the highest ideals in learning
and national education, and it is undoubtedly to
Buchanan, more than to any other, that this tradi-
tion is due.1 He took no such direct part as Knox
and Andrew Melville in the religious and political
struggles of his time. The main direction of his
influence, however, was identical with theirs, so
that he has his own merit and responsibility for the
types of thought and feeling which the world now
recognises as distinctively Scottish. Though less
obtrusive than that of Knox and Melville, Buchanan's
influence on subsequent Scottish politics was per-
haps more persuasive and permanently active. In
his History of Scotland and his De Jure Regni, the
political leaders of the Scottish people during the
seventeenth century had what they deemed the
classical statement of the principles of civil and
religious liberty, and Buchanan's universal fame as
a scholar gave a weight to his teaching beyond even
1 Thus, Calderwood in the seventeenth century says, " No man did
merit better of his nation for learning, nor thereby did bring it to more
glory."— Vol. ii. p. 300.
358 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
that of Melville and Knox. It is, in truth, only in
comparatively recent times that the work of these
two has been realised in all its significance. In
the seventeenth century their names carried
no such fulness of suggestion as they now imply
for us.
In Buchanan's literary work, what first strikes
the modern reader is the variety of forms in which
his genius expressed itself. He wrote prose and
verse indifferently, and verse in all its traditional
classical forms. This is not, of course, to be set
down to any undue consciousness of universal talent
on Buchanan's part. It was simply because the
age had no notion of special talent and the neces-
sity for its special direction. Many of his contem-
poraries who did not attain to the fame of Buchanan
displayed their powers in the same dispersive fashion.
Underlying all Buchanan's work, both prose and
verse, there is the solid foundation of strong sense
quickened by strong feeling, and this for Buchanan's
age, with all its fatuous pedantries and affectations,
is praise that can be estimated only after some
acquaintance with his contemporary humanists. In
his History of Scotland there is no suggestion of the
great original thinker ; but in the firm texture of
its style, and the logical process of the narrative,
we feel ourselves always in contact with a mind
eminently sane, and a character bent on making
itself felt on every page that he wrote. Verse,
however, and not prose, was Buchanan's natural
language. He tells us this himself, and there can
be no doubt that he judged himself aright. The
range of his poetical faculty is certainly remarkable.
In Franciscanus we have humour as broad as that
CONCLUSION. 359
of The Jolly Beggars, and in his version of the
Psalms there is a strain of spiritual feeling which
not even its artificial form can wholly obscure.
That he had a delicate play of fancy, both sportive
and serious, many of his shorter pieces prove be-
yond a doubt ; and it is impossible to read his ode
on the First of May, and not recognise that on
occasion he had also at command the special note
of the poetic imagination.
We have no knowledge of Buchanan in any of
those intimate domestic relations which alone enable
us to form a true and comprehensive judgment of a
man's character and habitual mood. From his cor-
respondence, however, we gather that he inspired
lasting attachment and reverence in men them-
selves of outstanding worth and accomplishments.
In the everyday intercourse of life the charm of
his manner and conversation is attested by friends
and foes alike. It is the best proof of his strenu-
ous individuality that his friends and foes speak
of him with the same keenness of feeling. Those
opposed to him on all the principles that under-
lie human life spoke of him in terms that refute
themselves by their own excess. The faults of
Buchanan, as has been said, were those of a
powerful nature. In the pungency of his satire,
and the vehemence of his denunciation, he seems
when tried by modern standards to pass the limits
of generous controversy. Yet it must not be for-
gotten that in this matter Buchanan can be fairly
judged only by reference to the licence of speech
that characterised his age, and especially the
generation of humanists to which he belonged.
TKe men of the sixteenth century staked life and
360 THE LIFE OF GEORGE BUCHANAN.
fortune in the expression of their convictions ; and
in controversy carried on under such conditions,
words were real battles and not mere broadsides of
ink. Whatever his defects, Buchanan through his
long and varied career was faithful to the ideal of
honourable manhood. He had little care for those
prizes in life by which most men set such store. His
aims were all of the noblest, and it may be said
that only with his life did he abandon them.
Taking him all in all — having regard at once to
the variety and scope of his work, to the striking
individuality of his character, and to the fact that
for nearly two centuries he stood before Europe as
the one man of genius his country had produced —
we seem justified in asserting that in the history of
Scotland there is not a greater personality than
Buchanan. Scotland has produced more original
thinkers, men of perhaps higher literary genius, of
greater practical power ; but in no other Scotsman
do we find conjoined with the same range and
quality of gifts that uniqueness of personal charac-
ter which, in its blended humour and austerity,
recalls to us certain of the great figures of classical
antiquity.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A.
(Page 180.)
TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL, MY VERY LOVINGE FREIND,
MAISTER PETER YONGE, SCHOLEMAISTER UNTO THE KINGES
MAJESTIE OF SCOTLAND.
After my verie hartie Commendacions. Beinge lately mouid
with the remembrance of my Maister, Mr. G. Buchanan, by the
Sight of a Booke of his, De Jure Regni apud Scotos, and callinge
to Mynde the notable Actes of his Lyfe, his Studie, his Trauayle,
his Danger, his Wisdome, his Learninge, and to be short, as
muche as could be wished in a Man ; I thought the Kinge your
Maister more happie that had Buchanan to his Maister, then
Alexander the Great, that had Aristotell his Instructor. I thought
you very lukye that had his daily Company, ioynid in Office of
lyke Seruice, and thanckid God not a litle for my self, that euer
I was acquaintid with him. For one that hath so great
acquaintance as he hath with many learnid, and Compaignons of
his Lyfe, and that hath so wel deseruid of the Worlde, I maruaille
that no Man hath written of it : beinge a thinge so common
unto all famous Personnes, and most peculiar to the best learnid.
Heerin I might chieflie blame you, my good Freind Maister
Yonge, so neere unto him, so deere unto him, that nothinge can be
hid of that which you desyre to knowe. If you say that Tyme
yeat seruithe, and that he yeat liuethe whose Life I wishe to be
sett foorthe, surelie yeat I say unto you, that yf it be donne
after his Deathe, many Thinges may be omittid that were
worthie of famous Memorie, by him to be better knowen then
after his Deathe. The cause of the wrytinge against the Grey
Friars is knowen to many, but aftenvardes ho we they preuailed
against him, that he was fayne to leave his Contrey, howe he
escapid with great hazard of Lyfe at Godes Hand, the Thieues
on the Borders, the Plague in the North of England, what
Reliefe he found heere at a famous Knightes Handes, Sir John
364 APPENDIX.
Rainsforde, the onlie Man that maintaynid him against the Furie
of the Papistes ; none doth knowe so wel as him self, or can giue
better Notes of his Life then him self can. As he liuith
vertuouslie, so I doubt not but he will dye Christianly, and may
be addid, when the former is perfectlie knowen. This is desired
by many, specially looked for at your Handes, that can best
doe, and are fittest to trauayle in so worthie a Worke. As I
craue this at your Handes, so shall you command what is in my
Power. And thus wishinge unto yow, my good Freind, hartely
well, I take my leave. London, the 15th of Marche, 1579.
Your verie lovinge Frende
THO. KANDOLPHE.1
GEORGII BUCHANANI
VITA
AB IPSO SCRIPTA BIENNIO ANTE MORTEM.
Georgius Buchananus in Levinia Scotiae provincia natus est,
ad Blanum amnem, anno salutis Christianae millesimo quin-
gentesimo sexto, circa Kalendas Februarias, in villa rustica,
familia magis vetusta quam opulenta. Patre in juventae robore
ex dolore calculi exstincto, avoque adhuc vivo decoctore, familia
ante tenuis pene ad extremam inopiam est redacta. Matris
tamen Agnetis Heriotae diligentia liberi quinque mares et tres
puellae ad maturam aetatem pervenerunt. Ex iis Georgium
avunculus Jacobus Heriotus, cum in Scholis patriis spem de
ingenio ejus concepisset, Lutetiam amandavit. Ibi cum studiis
literarum, maxime carminibus scribendis, operam dedisset,
partim naturae impulsu, partim necessitate (quod hoc unum
studiorum genus adolescentiae proponebatur) intra biennium
avunculo mortuo, et ipse gravi morbo correptus, ac undique
inopia circumventus, redire ad suos est coactus.
Cum in patria valetudini curandae prope annum dedisset,
1 In the concluding sentence of the following Latin sketch of his life,
it is stated that Buchanan was in his seventy-second year when it was
written. From this we should infer that it was written before Randolph's
letter. But the phrase " septuagesimum quartum annum agens" should
not, perhaps, be taken too literally. Ruddiman was of opinion that
Randolph's letter was the occasion of Buchanan's writing his auto-
biography.
APPENDIX. 365
cum auxiliis Gallorum, qui turn in Scotiam appulerant,
studio rei militaris cognoscendae in castra est profectus. Sed
cum ea expeditione prope inutili, hieme asperrima per altis-
simas nives reduceretur exercitus, rursus in valetudinem ad-
versam incidit, quae tota ilia hieme lecto affixum tenuit.
Primo vere ad Fanum Andreae missus est, ad Joannem
Majorem audiendum, qui turn ibi dialecticen, aut verius so-
phisticen, in extrema senectute docebat. Hunc in Galliam
aestate proxima sequutus, in flammam Lutheranae sectae, jam
late se spargentem, incidit : ac biennium fere cum iniqui-
tate fortunae colluctatus, tandem in Collegium Barbaranum
accitus, prope triennium classi grammaticam discentium praefuit.
Interea cum Gilbertus Cassilissae comes, adolescens nobilis, in
ea vicinia diversaretur, atque ingenio et consuetudine ejus
oblectaretur, eum quinquennium secum retinuit, atque in
Scotiam una reduxit.
Inde cum in Galliam ad pristina studia redire cogitaret, a
rege est retentus, ac Jacobo filio notho erudiendo praepositus.
Interea pervenit ad Franciscanos elegidion per otium ab eo
fusum, in quo se scribit per somnium a D. Francisco sollicitari,
nt ejus ordini se adjungat. In eo cum unum aut alterum
verbum liberius in eos emissum esset, tulerunt id homines man-
suetudinem professi, aliquanto asperius, quam patres, tarn vulgi
opinione pios, ob leviculam culpam decere videbatur : et cum
non satis justas irae suae immodicae causas invenirent, ad com-
mune religionis crimen, quod omnibus quibus male propitii erant
intentabant, decurrunt : et dum impotentiae suae indulgent,
ilium sponte sua sacerdotum licentiae infensum acrius incendunt,
et Lutheranae caussae minus iniquum reddunt.
Interea rex e Gallia cum Magdalena uxore venit, nee sine
metu sacrificulorum, qui timebant, ne puella regia, sub amitae
reginae Navarrae disciplina educata, nonnihil in religione muta-
ret. Sed hie timor brevi secuto ejus decessu evanuit. Subse-
cutae sunt in aula suspiciones ad versus quosdam e nobilitate
qui contra regem conjurasse dicebantur. In ea caussa cum regi
fuisset persuasum, non satis sincere versatos Franciscanos, rex
Buchananum, forte turn in aula agentem, ad se advocat et
ignarus l offensionis, quae ei cum Franciscanis esset, jubet ad-
versus eos carmen scribere. Ille utrosque juxta metuens offen-
dere, carmen quidem scripsit, et breve, et quod ambiguam
1 As has been pointed out, we must here read gnanu.
366 APPENDIX.
interpretationem susciperet. Sed nee regi satisfecit, qui acre et
aculeatum poscebat ; et illis capitale visum est, quenquam ipsos
nisi honorifice ausum attingere. Igitur acrius in eos jussus
scribere, earn Silvam, quae nunc sub titulo Franciscani est edita,
inchoatam regi tradidit. At brevi post per amicos ex aula
certior factus se peti, et Cardinalem Betonium a rege pecunia
vitam ejus mercari, elusis custodibus in Angliam contendit.
Sed ibi turn omnia adeo erant incerta, ut eodem die ac eodem
igne utriusque factionis homines cremarentur, Henrico vin. jam
seniore suae magis securitati quam religionis puritati intento.
Haec rerum Anglicarum incertitude, et vetus cum Gallis consue-
tudo, et summa gentis humanitas, Buchananum ad se traxerunt.
Ut Lutetiam venit, Cardinalem Betonium pessime erga se ani-
matum ibi legatione fungi comperit. Itaque ejus irae se sub-
traxit, Burdegalam invitante Andrea Goveano profectus.
Ibi in scholis, quae turn sumptu publico erigebantur, trien-
nium docuit : quo tenipore scripsit quatuor tragoedias, quae
postea per occasiones fuerunt evulgatae. Sed quae prima om-
nium fuerat conscripta (cui nomen est Baptista) ultima fuit
edita ; ac deinde Medea Euripidis. Eas enim ut consuetudini
scholae satisfaceret, quae per annos singulos singulas poscebat
fabulas, conscripserat : ut earum actione juventutem ab allegoriis,
quibus turn Gallia vehementer se oblectabat, ad imitationem
veterum, qua posset, retraheret. Id cum ei prope ultra spem
successisset, reliquas Jephthen et Alcestin paulo diligentius, tan-
quam lucem et hominum conspectum laturas, elaboravit. Sed
nee id temporis omnino ei fuit expers sollicitudinis, inter car-
dinalis et Franciscanorum minas. Cardinalis etiam de eo com-
prehendendo ad archiepiscopum Burdegalensem literas misit :
sed eas forte fortuna Buchanani amantissimis dederat. Sed
hunc metum regis Scotorum mors, et pestis per Aquitaniam
saevissime grassata sedavit.
Interea literae a rege Lusitaniae supervenerunt, quae Gove-
anum juberent, ut homines Graecis et Latinis literis eruditos
secum adduceret, qui in scholis, quas ille turn magna cura et
impensis moliebatur, literas humaniores et philosophiae Aris-
totelicae rudimenta interpretarentur. Ea de re conventus
Buchananus facile est assensus. Nam cum totam jam Europam
bellis domesticis et externis, aut jam flagrantem, aut mox con-
flagraturam videret, ilium unum videbat angulum a tumultibus
liberum futurum, et in eo coetu qui earn profectionem suscep-
APPENDIX. 367
erant, non tarn peregrinari, quam inter propinquos et familiares
agere existimaretur. Erant enim plerique per multos annos
summa benevolentia conjunct!, ut qui ex suis monumentis orbi
claruerunt, Nicolaus Gruchius, Gulielmus Garentaeus, Jacobus
Tevius, et Elias Vinetus. Itaque non solum se comitem libenter
dedit, sed et Patricio fratri persuasit, ut se tarn praeclaro coetui
conjungeret. Et principio quidem res praeclare successit, donee
in medio velut cursu Andreas Goveanus morte, ipse quidem non
immatura, comitibus ejus acerba, praereptus est. Omnes enim
inimici et aemuli in eos primum ex insidiis, deinde palam animo
plane gladiatorio incurrerunt : et cum per homines reis inimicis-
simos questionem clam exercuissent, tres arripuerunt, quos, post
longum carceris squalorem, in judicium productos, multis per
eos dies conviciis exagitatos, rursus in custodiam abdiderunt.
Accusatores autem ne adhuc quidem nominarunt.
In Buchananum certe acerbissime insultabant, ut qui pere-
grinus esset, et qui minime multos illic haberet qui incolumitate
gauderent, aut dolori ingemiscerent, aut injuriam ulcisci con-
arentur. Objiciebatur ei carmen in Franciscanos scriptum, quod
ipse, antequam e Galliis exisset, apud Lusitaniae regem excusan-
dum curavit, nee accusatores quale esset sciebant ; unum enim
ejus exemplum regi Scotorum, qui scribendi auctor fuerat, erat
datum. Crimini dabatur carnium esus in Quadragesima, a qua
nemo in tota Hispania est qui abstineat ; dicta quaedam oblique
in monachos objecta, quae apud neminem nisi monachum crimi-
nosa videri poterant. Item gravissime acceptum, quod in
quodam sermone familiari inter aliquot adolescentes Lusitanos,
cum fuisset orta mentio de eucharistia, dixisset, sibi videri
Augustinum in partem ab ecclesia Eomana damnatam multo
esse proniorem. Alii duo testes/ Joannes Tolpinus l Normannus,
et Joannes Ferrerius e Subalpina Liguria, (ut post aliquot annos
comperit) pro testimonio dixerunt, se ex pluribus hominibus
fide dignis audivisse, Buchananum de Eomana religione per-
peram sentire. Ut ad rem redeam, cum quaestores prope
sesquiannum et se et ilium fatigassent, tandem ne frustra
hominem non ignotum vexasse crederentur, eum in monasterium
ad aliquot menses recludunt, ut exactius erudiretur a monachis,
hominibus quidem alioqui nee inhumanis, nee malis, sed omnis
religionis ignaris. Hoc maxime tempore psalmorum Davidi-
corum complures vario carminum genere in numeros redegit.
1 Talpinus. Cf. p. 134 (above).
368 APPENDIX.
Tandem libertati redditus, cum a rege commeatum redeundi
in Gallias peteret, ab eo rogatus ut illic maneret, pecuniola in-
terim accepta in sumptum quotidianum, donee de conditione
aliqua honesta prospiceretur. Sed cum procrastinationis, nee in
certain spem, nee certum tempus, taederet, navem Cretensem in
portu Olisipponensi nactus, in ea in Angliam navigavit. Nee
hie tamen substitit quamvis honestis conditionibus invitaretur.
Erant enim illic omnia adhuc turbida sub rege adolescente, pro-
ceribus discordibus, et populi adhuc animis tumescentibus ab
recenti motu civili. Igitur in Galliam transmisit, iisdem fere
diebus, quibus urbis Mediomatricum obsidio fuit soluta. Coac-
tus est ibi per amicos ea de obsidione carmen scribere, idque eo
magis invitus, quod non libenter in contentionem veniret cum
aliis plerisque necessariis, et in primis cum Mellino Sangelasio,
cujus carmen eruditum et elegans ea de re circumferebatur.
Inde evocatus in Italiam a Carolo Cossaeo Brixiacensi, qui
turn secunda fama res in Ligustico et Galileo circa Padum agro
gerebat, nunc in Italia, nunc in Gallia, cum iilio ejus Timoleonte
quinquennium haesit, usque ad annum millesimum quingentesi-
mum sexagesimum. Quod tempus maxima ex parte dedit
sacrarum literarum studio, ut de controversiis, quae turn ma-
jorem hominum partem exercebant, exactius dijudicare posset ;
quae turn domi conquiescere coeperant, Scotis a tyrannide Gui-
siana liberatis. Eo re versus nomen ecclesiae Scotorum dedit.
E superiorum autem temporum scriptis quaedam velut e nau-
fragio recollecta edidit. Caetera vero quae adhuc apud amicos
peregrinantur, fortunae arbitrio committit. In praesentia sep-
tuagesimum quartum annum agens, apud Jacobum Sextum
Scotorum regem, cui erudiendo erat praefectus, senectutis suae
malis fractae portum exoptans agit.
Haec de se Buchananus, amicorum rogatu.
Obiit Edinburgi, paulo post horam quintain matutinam, die
Veneris xxviii. Septembris, anno M.D.LXXXII.
George Chalmers, in his Life of Ruddiman (p. 68, note) dog-
matically asserts that the above sketch was not written by
Buchanan but by Peter Young. " The writer," he says, " who-
ever he were, talks of John Major as being in extrema senedute
in 1524, when he was but fifty-five. He speaks of Henry vm.
as jam seniore in 1539, when he was but forty-eight. He
APPENDIX. 369
makes Buchanan meet Cardinal Beaton at Paris in 1539, a
twelvemonth after he had returned to Scotland." These
objections are groundless. As every one acquainted with the
sixteenth century knows, a man at fifty was then considered far
advanced in life. With regard to Beaton, the State Papers of
Henry vm. (v. 154 and 156) distinctly state that he was in Paris
that year. In one point there is an inaccuracy in the sketch.
It leads us to infer that Buchanan went to St. Andrews the
spring following Albany's expedition, that is, the spring of
1523-4, whereas Buchanan's entry of matriculation in the Uni-
versity records is of the date 1524-5. There seems hardly
any reason, however, for questioning Buchanan's authorship of
the document. The general texture of the style is certainly
Buchanan's ; and there are touches here and there (notably the
account of the Portuguese expedition) which, as we think, could
only have come from him. It may be questioned whether there
was any one in Scotland save Buchanan himself who could have
written Latin with such strength and incisiveness.
2 A
APPENDIX B.
(Page 76.)
THE following extracts, which I have had copied from the
archives of the University of Paris,1 are Buchanan's own
record of his procuratorship. They are interesting not only
as a part of Buchanan's own biography, but also as afford-
ing a curious glimpse into the university life of the time.
It will be seen that Buchanan does not depart from the
official dog-Latin of his predecessors. But even in these
meagre official notes he shows his sarcastic humour.
M. KOBERTI WAUCHOP. [1529]
Quinto maii anni supradicti congregata fuit invictissima Ger-
manorum natio apud divum Mathurinum super procuratoris
electione et ad audiendum partes de discordia inter Magistrum
Georgium Drappier et Magistrum Georgium Bochanane Scotum
magistros et regentes prefate nationis, quorum uterque dicebat
se procuratorem fuisse, nam Drappier allegabat turnum pertinere
ad altos Alemanos et se fuisse functum procuratorio magistratu
pro vice bassorum, precedente procuratorio, insuper quod erat
continuatus ab omnibus altis septima Aprilis. Alter vero, scilicet
Bochanane, allegabat se fuisse electum legitime ab omnibus Scotis
et Anglis qui constituebant provinciam Britannorum juxta
statutum M[agistri] Roberti Fergusson factum de duabus pro-
vinciis, et virtute ejusdem statuti dicebat vicem electionis
pertinere ad prefatos. Insuper dixit Drappier conclusisse a
pauciore numero et decanum nationis conclusisse recte pro eo
et eum in possessionem posuisse, etc. . . .
1 Bibliotheque de PUniversite ; Archives : Registre 16, fol. 169v° 174.
APPENDIX. 371
SEQUITUR PROCURATURA GEORGII BTJCHANAM
LEVINIANI SCOTI ANNO 1529.
Anno domini millesimo [quingentesimo] vicesimo nono die vero
tertia mensis Junii convocata fuit fidelissima Germanorum natio
apud aedem divi Mathurini duobus super articulis consultura.
Primus concernebat novi procuratoris electionem, secundus
communis erat supplicationibus et injuriis. Quod ad primum
articulum spectat a decano provincie Scotorum nominatus est
Georgius Buchananus Levinianus dioeceseos Glasguensis e
comitatu Leviniae et omnium communi consensu procurator
electus qui statim prestito jurejurando et inito magistratu gratias
egit nationi pro tarn propenso erga se animo et supplicuit ut
natio ei favorem consilium et auxilium in omnibus prestaret.
GEORGIUS BUCHANANUS.
Eodem anno et mense die xix. convocata fuit universitas in
templum divi Mathurini quinque super articulis consultura :
primus concernebat processionem rectoris quam quominus fieret
die"; qua constituerat rector impediebat mandatum regium qui
per dominum episcopum parisiensem mandaverat ut fieret omnium
parechiarum generalis processio pro pace impetranda. Statutum
est ut rectoris processio in diem lunse differretur protestatione
facta ne id in fraudem privilegiorum universitatis fieret.
Secundus articulus communis erat supplicationibus et injuriis.
Eodem anno et mense die vero vigesima tertia congregata
fuit [natio] Germanorum super electione intrantis apud aedem
Cosme et Damiani super duobus articulis deliberatura. Quo-
ad primum qui electionem intrantis concernebat, decanus pro-
vinciae Scotorum exhibuit et presentavit virum egregie doctum
Magistrum Kobertum Fergushil qui prestito juramento et solitis
ceremoniis peractis, omnium consensu admissus est. Secundus
communis erat supplicationibus et injuriis.
Eodem mense pridie divi Joannis Baptiste convocata fuit
Germanorum natio apud edem Cosme et Damiani deliberatura
super duobus articulis. Primus qui electionem intrantis specta-
bat, secundus vero communis. Quoad primum decanus Scotorum
cujus turn iuris erat presentavit egregie doctum et idoneum
magistrum Kobertum Fergushil, qui, prestito juramento, ab
omnibus admissus est.
Eodem die paulo post facultas artium ad divum Julianum
372 APPENDIX.
congregata super electione rectoris. Ibi acta per magistrum
Ludovicum Fabrum defunctum rectorem habita sunt rata et
gratie acte ab intrantibus post rem divinam auditam, via spiritus
sancti electus est rector vir doctissimus Hylarius Cortesius et
ejus supplicationi ut dispensaretur de diebus legibilibus annuit
facultas.
Nono die mensis Julii congregata f uit Germanorum natio apud
divum Mathurinum super provisione nunciatus Lismorensis in
Scotia per mortem vacantis. Electus est nuncius Joannes de Puys.
xxiii. die Julii apud Mathurinos Petrus Lamy factus est
nuncius dioeceseos Existerciensis per mortem Egidii Sumel.
Item Petrus Belin nuncius Clusiensis per resignationem.
Eodem anno die l mensis Augusti collecta facultas fuit apud
divum Julianum super appellatione domini Joannis Benedicti
adversus Claudium Roillet primarium collegii Burgundiorum.
Natio dedit deputatos magistros Eobertum Vauchop et Joaunem
Douglas. GEORGIUS BUCHANANUS.
Pridie divi Barthomei congregata fuit universitas ad Mathurini
super duobus articulis quorum primo Universitas promisit
auxilium et favorem rectori. Secundo : multi supplicuerunt ut
reciperentur in locum Pergamenarii mortui. Nostra natio elegit
Antonium Monpignon. Reliquse vero nationes et facultates
elegerunt Petrum Petit. Tertio : supplicuit procurator Univer-
sitatis ut reficeretur sigillum Rectoris. Cui ab omnibus assensum.
Quarto : supplicuit quidam preceptor collegii Coqueretici Petrus
Tyllier nomine cujusdam preceptoris eiusdem collegii qui iniuste
in carceres censoris criminum coniectus erat. Item, nomine
cuiusdam pedagogi qui in carceribus officialis Parisiensis detine-
batur per virum insigni crudelitate et avaritia primarium collegii
Coqueretici ob panem unius assis ab eis comestum, et utriusque
epistolas super ea re protulit. Natio ex consensu etiam totius
facultatis prefecit virum gravissimum magistrum Martinum
Doletium qui incarceratos repeteret. Primarium vero privavit
privilegiis Universitatis quod contra statutum fecisset quod
prohibet quempiam Universitati subiectum vocari in ius ante
alium judicem priusquam vocetur ante rectorem, et tota facultas
undem refractarium iudicavit iussitque reformatores adire col-
legium Coqueretici et pro magistratu agere et tumultus com-
ponere. GEORGIUS BUCHANANUS.
1 The day is omitted in the original text.
APPENDIX. 373
CONTINUATIO MAGISTRI GEORGII BUCHANANI LEVINII.
Postridie divi Barthomei apostoli Germanorum natio congregata
fuit ad divi Mathurini in qua congregatione procurator omnium
consensu in proximum mensem continuatus est gratiasque
maximas nationi egit et suam operam sedulam et fidelem eidem
est pollicitus. GEORGIUS BUCHANANUS.
Congregata fuit f acultas artium apud sanctum Julianum super
novem articulis deliberatura. Primus erat de danda nomen-
clatura regentum juratorum domino rectori cui in forma assen-
sum. Secundus de salutandis procuratoribus nationum ad
convivia supplicationum rectoriarum veluti salutantur decani
facultatum, de quo articulo ita decretum est ut cum facultas
ostendat sese maxime liberalem in externos, indignum esse suos
negligi; rursus dignum esse ut mutua benevolentia procuratores Quod si invitati
. • -I • •. i , non fnerint non
cum rectore certent ideo invitandos esse procuratores ; rursus ut tenean[tur] venire
procuratores post prandium cappati rectorem ad Mathurinos rectorfs?68
usque comitentur. Tertius articulus super negocio pergamena-
riorum iuratorum qui nocent iuri rectoris. Decretum ut statuta
antiqua servarentur. Quartus ut scriba denuo publicitus repetat
conclusiones factas a domino rectore vel in facultate vel in
Universitate, cui conclusion! maxime assensum est.
Quintus ut qui recturi sunt proferant literas gradus in sua
natione ante quam admittantur propter nonnullos abusus.
Huic item assensum. Sextus super querimonia cuiusdam
regentis volentis repetere via juris supellectilem quam dicit
detineri ab avarissima harpya magistro Eoberto Dugast primario
collegii Coqueretici; quern idem regens vocavit in ius coram
eadem facultate. Dictus vero primarius solita pervicacia usus
non comparuit. Septimus super supplicatione Magistri Jacobi
Staphet volentis repetere quemdam quern asserit turn scolasticum
esse qui, uti ait idem Staphet, divertit alio ad capessendum
ingenii cultum. Quern scho[la]sticum qui se non suo arbitrio
id facere negabat, sed servire cuidam mercatori, et cum sepe
cubiculum petiisset in collegio Plessiaco non impetrasse. Ideo
voluntate mercatoris predicti se ad collegium Cenonense contulit,
asserens se tantum novem menses in collegio Plessiaco fuisse.
Itaque permissum est ut illic maneret.
Octavus ut nullus rector permittat sigillatori suo signare
litteras vectigales testimoniales citationes aut alia id genus,
374 APPENDIX.
veluti fiunt multe obsignationes passim, uti dicitur, in fide
parentum; idque se facturum, si opus, rector iuret quando
elegetur. Cui articulo assensum cum etiam id iuret rector se
servaturum privilegia. Nonus erat communis supplicationibus
et iniuriis. G-. B.
Kalendis septembribus fidelissima Germanorum natio necnon
reliqua Universitas apud divum Mathurinum congregata fuit
super duobus articulis consultura.
Primus, resignationem questure generalis; secundus, communis
supplicationibus et iniuriis. Quod ad primum spectat articulum,
natio admisit resignationem et iussit ut defunctus receptor
pecuniarum acceptarum rationem redderet intra mensem et in
locum eius substituit virum probum l primarium
collegii Thesaurariorum voluitque ut in singulis annis sine ulla
delatione computum redderet. Quoad secundum, supplicatum
est ut nomen cuiusdam rectoris in album et catalogum aliorum
rectorum inseretur. Cujusdam supplication! assensit natio
oravitque ut idem in aliis quibus fieret, cum negligentia quor-
umdam nomina rectorum et tempus magistratus non satis
constet ; ut que comperirentur in catalogum aliorum referrentur,
subscripto anno et mense ; et ita per rectorem conclusum est.
Eodem anno decima octava die mensis septembris facta est
congregatio Universitatis apud divum Mathurinum super tribus
articulis. Primus concernebat resignationem cuiusdam sacellaniae.
Secundus vero causam Roberti Dugast primarii collegii Coquereti,
qui ter contumax fuerat ; bis quia non comparuit cum citatus
esset. Tertio vero cum comparuisset appellavit a rectore et ad
quesita reddere recusavit. Tertius communis erat supplicationi-
bus et iniurii[s]. Supplicatum est nomine cuiusdam magistri
incarcerati ut pecunia ei pro victu impenderetur. Quod ad
primum spectat articulum, natio censuit non admittendam esse
resignationem nisi constaret ilium cui fiebat resignatio gradum
Parisii in aliqua facultate suscepisse ; et cum compertum esset
eum omnino juramento rectorio non adactum esse, nihilominus
in favorem theologorum alie facultates eum admittebant ad
sacellaniam ea lege ut intra quindecim dies iuraret ; quod cum
in fraudem commodorum Universitatis fieret, appellavit vir
gravissimus procurator Universitatis magister Martinus Dolet ;
ob cuius appellationem consensu omnium res dilata fuit in proxima
1 A word omitted in text.
APPENDIX. 375
comitia. Quod ad secundum spectat, egit pro se dictus Robertus
Dugast cum multis gratiis ad versus rectorem, cui modestissimus
rector Hylarius Cortesius modestissime pariter et doctissime
respondit et eius maledicta refellit. Supplicavit etiam Magister
Philippus Roguet, qui dictum Dugast in ius vocaverat, ut sibi
redderetur sua supellex iniuste detenta a dicto Dugast et
obligatio quedam quam ei dederat qua pecuniam promiserat ei
cum ad regendum admissus fuit. Cum tamen id contra statuta
Universitatis esset, ad earn rem dati sunt deputati qui de dicta
causa iudicarent et morem legendi in collegiis respicerent. Sup-
plicationi incarcerati annuit natio. De summa vero que ei
daretur, id ad deputatos remisit. Annuit item supplication!
Bede, videlicet ne dialectica Melancthonis prelegeretur pueris
cursum inchoantibus.
Vigesimo die mensis eiusdem facta est congregatio venerande
nationis Germanorum apud Mathurinos super tribus articulis.
Primus erat de admissione Germanorum quos bassos vocant ad
jura pristina nationis que pro tertia congregatione celebrata est.
Secundus spectabat election em novi rectoris. Tertius communis
erat supplicationibus et iniuriis. Quod ad primum spectat, natio
Germanos admisit revocando statutum de duabus provinciis
secundum congregationem prius factam, nempe ut tres essent
provincie quarum prima esset superiorum Germanorum,
secunda Scotorum, tertia Germanorum inferiorum et Anglorum.
Statutum turn tertio ut illud inviolabiliter observaretur,
consentibus (sic) omnibus Germanis bassis qui aderant.
Aderant autem quatuor magistri Cornelius Ceratinus et Hugo
et Gerardus Morrhius et quorum consensum suo decreto
confirmavit reliqua natio. Quod ad secundum, dati sunt ex
natione aliorum magister Titus l ex natione Scotorum,
magister David Henrisom ex natione Bassorum, magister
Cornelius Hugo qui antique receptori in redditione rationum
adessent. Qua reddita, pecunia recepta excessit expensam
duodecim libris duodecim solidis parisiensibus et septem denariis
turonensibus. Item electus est in Receptorem proximi anni
Corneliis (sic) Ceratinus et magistro Roberto Vauchop defuncto
receptori de dono gratuito supplicanti natio annuit.
Item magnas distributiones dari jussit. Item bedellis pro
clavis suis quas massas vocant et regentibus pro scolis sup-
plicantibus annuit et hec ita per me conclusa sunt.
GEORGIUS BUCHANAN us.
1 A word omitted in text.
376
APPENDIX.
Isti duo post
continuationem
fuerunt recepti,
ut patet in
<!ontinuatione.
Eodem die apud rectorem conquestus est Magister Franciscus
Zampinus regens in collegio Lexoviensi quosdam a se discessisse
ad collegium Plessiacum quos repetebat iudicio.
Audita [querela] utriusque regentis et juvenum, procuratores
reformatores et deputati nationum censuerunt juvenes debere ad
prefatum preceptorem redire. Et ita per dominum rectorem
conclusion est magistro Joanne Arboreo apud quern juvenes
erudiebantur Universitatem appellante.
GEORGIUS BUCHANANUS.
NOTES.
Bacchalaureorum anni domini 1527 nomina . . .
Licentiatorum nomina . . .
Dominorum magistrorum de novo incipientium nomina . . .
Dns Georgius Buchanam, dioc. Glasguensis, cuius bursa valet
4 sol. paris.
Dns Joannes Kedmaynus dioc. Eboracensis, cuius bursa valet
8 sol. paris.
Signe" :
CL. POLLATIUS.1
Continuatio Magistri Claudii Pollatii, Helvetii Lausanici
diocesani in munere procuratorio 1527.2
Anno eodem, 1528.
Nomen unius incipientis.
Dominus Georgius Buchanam, dioc. Glasguensis, cuius bursa
valet 4 sol. paris. . . . 3
1 Fol. 141.
2 Fol. 143 verso.
* Fol. 144 verso.
APPENDIX C.
(Page 224.)
[ORIG. BRIT. Mus., LANSDOWNE MSS., NUM. 15-24.]
LETTER FROM GEORGE BUCHANAN TO SIR THOMAS RANDOLPH.1
To his singular freynd M. Randolph, maister of postes to the
queines g. of Ingland. In London.
I resauit twa pair of lettres of you sens my latter wryting to
you. wyth the fyrst I ressavit Marianus Scotus, of quhylk I
thank you greatly, and specialy that your ingles men ar fund
liars in thair cronicles allegying on hym sic thyngs as he never
said. I haif beyne vexit wyth seiknes al the tyme sens, and
geif I had decessit ye suld haif losit both thankis and recompens,
now I most neid thank you bot geif wear brekks vp of thys
foly laitly done on the border, than I wyl hald the recom-
pense as Inglis geir. bot gif peace followis and nother ye
die seik of mariage or of the twa symptomes following on
mariage quhylks ar jalozie [and] cuccaldry, and the gut cary not
me away, I most other find sum way to pay or ceis kyndnes or
ellis geifing vp kyndnes pay you w* evil wordis, and geif thys fasson
of dealing pleasit me I haif reddy occasion to be angry wyth you
that haif wissit me to be ane kentys man, quylk in a maner is
ane centaur, half man, half beast, and yit for ane certaine con-
sideration I wyl pas over that iniury, imputyng it erar to your
new foly than to aid wisdome, for geif ye had beine in your ryt
wyt ye being anis escapit the tempesteous stormes and naufrage
of mariage had never enterit agane in the samyng dangeris. for
I can not tak you for ane Stoik philosopher, having ane head
inexpugnable wfc the frenetyk tormetis of Jalozie, or ane cairless
[margin, skeptik] hart that taks cuccaldris as thyng indifferent.
In this caise I most neidis praefer the rude Scottis wyt of capi-
1 This letter was first printed by Dr. M'Crie in the Appendix to his
Life of Andreio Melville.
378 APPENDIX.
taine Cocburne to your inglis solomonical sapience, quhylk
wery of ane wyfe deliuerit her to the queyne againe, but
you deliverit of ane wyfe castis your self in the samyn
nette, et ferre poles dominam saluis tot restibus ullam. and so
capitaine cocburne is in better case than you for his seiknes is
in the feitte and youris in the heid. I pray you geif I be out
of purpose thynk not that I suld be maryit. bot rather consider
your awyn dangerous estait of the quhylk the spoking has thus
troublit my braine and put me so far out of the way. As to my
occupation at this present tyme, I am besy w* our story of
Scotland to purge it of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite, as to
maister knoks his historic is in hys freindis handis, and thai ar in
cosultation to mitigat sum part the acerbite of certaine wordis
and sum taintis quhair in he has followit to much su of your
inglis writaris as M. hal et suppilatorem eius Graftone &c. As to
M. beza I fear y* eild quhylk has put me from verses making
sal deliure him sone a Scabie poetica, quhylk war ane great
pitye for he is ane of the most singular poetes that has beine
thys lang tyme. as to your great prasyng gevin to me in your
Ire geif ye scorne not I thank you of luif and kyndnes towart
me bot I am sorie of your corrupt ingement. heir I wald say
mony iniuries to you war not yat my gut comandis me to cesse
and I wyl als spair mater to my nixt writings. Fairweall and
god keip you. at Sterling the Sext of august.
Be youris at al power
G. BUCHANAN.
APPENDIX D.
(Page 353.)
BUCHANAN'S TESTAMENT DATIVE.1
THE Testament Datiue, & Inuentar
Maister of ye gudis, geir, soumes of money, &
George Buchannane dettis, perteining to vmquhile ane
Vigesimo Febr" rycht venerabill man, Maister George
1582 Buchannane, preceptour to ye kingis
majestic the tyme of his deceis, quha
deceist vpoun ye xxix day of Septem-
ber,2 the zeir of God jmvclxxxii zeris,
faithfullie maid & gevin vp be Jonet
Buchannane, relict of vmquhile Mr.
Thomas Buchannane of Ibert, his bruyer
sone, executrix dative, decernit to him
be decreit of ye commissaris of Edr as
ye same decreit of ye dait ye xix day of
December, the zeir of God foirsaid, at
lenth proportis.
In the first, ye said vmquhile Maister George Buchannane,
perceptour to ye kingis majestic, had na uyer gudis nor geir
(except ye dett vndirwrittin) pertening to him as is awin pro-
per dett ye tyme of his deceis foirsaid : viz. Item, yair wes
awand to ye said vmquhile Mr. George be Robert Gourlaw,
custumar burges of Edr for ye defunctis pensioun of Corsraguell,
restand of ye Whitsonday terme in anno jmvclxxxii zeris, the
soume of ane hundreth pundis.
Summa of ye inuentar . . . jc 1.
No diuisioun.
Quhairof ye quot is gevin gratis.
1 From the Records of the Commissary Court.
2 It will be observed that the date of Buchanan's death given here
differs from that of the note affixed to the Latin sketch of his life. With
Irving, I have followed the latter date.
380 APPENDIX.
We, Maisteris Eduard Henrysoun, Alexr Sym, & Johne Pres-
toun, commissaris of Edr specialie constitut for confirmatioun of
testamentis, &c., vnderstanding yat efter dew summonding &
lauchfull warning maid be forme of editt oppenlie, as efferis, of
ye executouris intromettouris with ye gudis & geir of vmquhile
Mr. George Buchannane, & of uyeris hafand entreis, to compeir
judicialie befoir us at ane certane day bypast, to heir & sie
executouris datiuis decernit to be gevin, admittit, & confermit
be us in & to ye gudis & geir quhilk justlie pertenit to him ye
tyme of his deceis, or ellis to schaw ane caus quhy, &c. we
decernit yairintill as our decreit gevin yairupoun beris ; con-
forme to ye quhilk we in our soverane lordis name & autoritie
makis, constitutis, ordanis, & confermes ye said Jonet Buchan-
nane in executorie datiue to ye said Mr. George, with power to
hir to intromet, vptak, follow & perseu, as law will, ye dett &
soume of money abone specifeit, & yairwith outred dettis to
creditouris, and generalie all & sindrie vyer thingis to do,
exerce, & vse yat to ye office of executorie datiue is knawin to
pertene; prouiding yat ye said Jonet, executrix foirsaid, sail
ansuer & render compt vpoun hir intromissioun quhan and
quhair ye samin salbe requirit of hir, & yat ye said dett &
soume salbe be furthcumand to all parteis haifand entres, as law
will; quhairvpoun scho hes fundin cautioun, as ane act maid
yairvpoun beris.
INDEX.
ABERDEEN, University of, 12.
Addison, Joseph, 165n.
Admonitioun to the trew Lordis, 217,
218, 219, 223.
Albany, the Regent, 34, 35.
Alcestis, translated by Buchanan,
121, 155.
Alexandre de Villedieu, 57, 64, 65.
Amyot, Jacques, 127.
Anabaptists, 277, 278.
Anderson's Collections, 209 n., 210 n.
Anjou, the Duke of, 332, 333.
Anselan Buey, legendary ancestor
of the Clan Buchanan, 5, 8.
Anselan, chamberlain to Malduin,
Earl of Lennox, 6.
Aquinas, Thomas, 274.
Aristotle, 18, 64.
Arran, the Regent, 321, 322.
Arts, Faculty of, in Paris, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 130.
Ascham, Roger, 2, 217.
Assembly, General, 190, 207, 208.
Augustine, St., 307, 308.
BACHELORSHIP of Arts, 31.
Bacon, Lord, 203.
Bannatyne Miscellany, 71 n.
Bannatyne's Memorials, 221 n.,
277 n.
Baudrillart, Bodin et son Temps,
276, 278, 298, 300.
Bauge", Battle of, 6.
Baptistes, a drama of Buchanan,
121-125, 197.
Beaton, Cardinal, 83, 104, 109, 122,
125, 228, 321, 322.
Beaton, Mary, 183.
Beda, Noel, 39, 67, 69, 75 n.
Bede, 309.
Bellay, Jean du, Bishop of Paris, 71.
Bellenden, John, translator of Boece,
306.
Bellesheim, Canon, 92, 97 n.
Berquin, Louis de, 23, 68, 122, 123.
Beza, 22, 136, 137, 139, 244, 262,
335, 341, 342.
Blane, the river, 4, 14, 104.
Bodin, Jean, 276, 285 n., 287 n., 290,
298, 299, 300, 309, 318.
Boece, Hector, 19 n., 87 re., 174 n.,
186, 280, 281, 282, 299, 304, 305,
307, 308, 310.
Boetie, Etienne de la, 280.
Boncourt College, 155.
Book of Articles, 208, 209, 210.
Book of Discipline, 226, 232 n, 235
237, 240, 242.
Book of Pluscarden, 7, 315.
Bordeaux, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109,
110, 113, 123, 125, 126, 128, 238.
Boswell, James, 2.
Bothwell, Earl of, 8, 205.
Bourbon, Pere, 146.
Brahe", Tycho, 166, 337, 338.
Brant6me, 158.
Brewer, Professor, 36 n., 320??.
Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux, 67, 68.
Brissac, the Margchal de, 34, 113,
151, 155-159, 166, 170, 180.
Comte de, pupil of Buchanan,
113, 158, 159.
Brougham, Lord, 10.
Bruce, Robert, Buchanan's character
of, 312, 313.
Buchanan of Auchmar, 6 n., In., 8 re.
Sir Alexander, 6.
George, his fame on the Con-
tinent, 1 ; in England, 2 ; in Scot-
land, 3, 4 ; birth, ancestry, and
parentage, 4-10 ; early education,
12 ; is sent to Paris University,
13 ; his studies there, 31 ; returns
to Scotland, 33 ; engages in a
military expedition to the Borders,
35, 36 ; at St. Andrews Univer-
sity, 38 ; Bachelor of Arts, 46 ;
returns to Paris, 47 ; at the Scots
382
INDEX.
College, 48 ; Master of Arts, 50 ;
regent in Ste. Barbe, 56 ; poem
describing his life as regent, 56 ;
probably acquainted with Calvin,
61 ; publishes a translation of
Linacre's Latin Grammar, 65 ; his
epigram on John Major, 71 ; his
religious opinions, 74 ; his satire
on the Sorbonne, 75 ; elected
procurator of the German nation,
76 ; extract from his entries as
procurator, 78, 79 ; tutor to the
Earl of Cassillis, 81 ; returns to
Scotland, 85 ; his Somnium, a
satire against the Franciscans, 89,
90 ; tutor to Lord James Stewart,
91 ; his Palinodia, 93 ; Francis-
canus, 95, 96 ; flees to England,
101 ; in Paris, 103 ; regent in
Bordeaux, 104 ; Montaigne one of
his pupils, 111 ; Julius Caesar
Scaliger one of his friends, 113,
114; poem to Charles v., 117 ;
satire on the Brothers of St.
Anthony, 118; his Apologia pro
Lena, 119 ; translations of Medea
and Alcestis, 121 ; his Jephthes,
ib. ; his Baptistes, 121-125; leaves
Bordeaux, 125; regent in the
College du Cardinal Lemoine, 127 ;
poem to his friends in Bordeaux,
127-129 ; at Coimbra, Portugal,
131 ; persecuted by the monks,
133; sails for England, 134;
erotic poems, 135-140 ; para-
phrase of the Psalms, 141-149 ;
in France, 150 ; poem on the cap-
ture of Metz, 1 53 ; intimacy with
Mellin de Saint-Gelais, 153, 154 ;
regent in the College Boncourt,
155 ; tutor to the son of the
Marechal de Brissac, 155-159 ;
final return to Scotland, 160 ;
poem on the Sphere, 162-170;
poem on the capture of Calais,
170, 171 ; poem on the marriage
of Mary Queen of Scots and
the Dauphin, 171-176 ; Calendae
Maiae, 177-179 ; reads with Queen
Mary, 180 ; epigram to Mary,
184 ; Poet-Laureate of the Scot-
tish Court, 185 ; his poverty,
186, 187; pension from the
Abbacy of Crossraguel, 188, 189 ;
poems to Mary, 189, 190; mem-
ber of General Assembly, 190 ;
poems to the Regent Moray, 191 ;
poem to Darnley, 193, 194 ;
writes masque on the baptism of
James vi., 195 ; poem on the
birth of James vi., 196-199 ; his
attitude towards Mary after the
murder of Darnley, 200-216 ; ac-
companies Moray and the other
commissioners to England, 208 ;
his Detectio, 210-216 ; in London,
216, 217 ; his Admonitioun to the
trew Lordis, 217, 219; his
Chamaeleon, 219-221 ; his ser-
vices to education in Scotland,
226-248; Principal of St. Leon-
ard's, 241, 242 ; his interest in
Glasgow College, 242, 243 ; letter
to Beza, 245 ; poem on Alexander
Cockburn, 247 ; tutor to King
James, 250-261 ; his bearing to-
wards James, 256 ; his political
importance as the King's tutor,
261, 263 ; his public life, 263-
268 ; his political opinions, 269-
292 ; his political dialogue De
Jure Regni, 284-292 ; his History
of Scotland, 293-328 ; his corre-
spondence, 329-348 ; visited by
the diarist James Melville, 349-
351 ; probably approved of the
Raid of Ruthven, 351 ; his death,
352 ; burial, 353 ; his character
and work, 354-360.
Gilbert, 6.
Maurice, probable author of
the Pluscarden Book, 6.
Patrick, brother of George, 10,
11, 132.
Robert, grandfather of George,
7.
Thomas, first of the Drumi-
kill family, 7.
— Thomas, father of George,
10.
— Thomas, nephew of George,
266.
Thomas, cousin of George,
349.
Bude, Guillaume, 17, 67, 68, 356.
Burke, Edmund, 218.
Burgersdicius, 164, 167 n.
Burgundy, Duke of, pupil of Fene-
lon, 260, 261.
Burns, Robert, 80.
[NDEX.
383
Burton, Dr. John Hill, 3, 45 n., 146, '
174 »., 327, 328.
CALAIS, Buchanan's poem on the
capture of, 170.
Calderwood,thehistorian,325,357n. j
Calendae Maiae, poem of Buchanan,
177-179.
Calvin, John, 18, 60, 61, 154, 234,
263, 278, 279, 354, 355.
Cambridge, University of, 27, 39,
232.
Camden, 2, 209 n., 326, 351.
Camerarius, 137, 138.
Cardross, 8, 11, 34.
Carlyle, Thomas, 3, 298.
Carpentras, school of, 72.
Casaubon, Isaac, 69, 356.
Casket Letters, 206, 207.
Cassillis, Earl of, 188, 189.
pupil of Buchanan, 66, 81-86,
91, 320.
Catiline, 199.
Catullus, 136, 138.
Cecil, Sir William, minister of Eliza-
beth, 113, 180, 216, 295.
Chalmers, George, 50 n., 77, 266,
267, 270 n., 298 n., 353 n.
CJiamaeleon, The, Buchanan's satire
on Maitland of Lethington, 217,
219-222.
Charlemagne, 174.
Charles I. (of England), 125.
Charles v., Emperor of Germany,
117, 153, 277.
Cheyne, Dr., 148 n.
Chrestien, Florent, 241 n.
Christie, R. C., 177 n., 212.
Cicero, 73.
Cockburn, Alexander, 246, 247.
Coimbra, University of, 130-133.
Coleridge, S. T., 223.
Colet, Dean, 74, 231, 354.
College Royal, in Paris, 17, 63.
Columba, St., 307.
Comines de, Philippe, 299.
Copernicus, 163, 164, 169.
Coqueret College, 78, 79.
Cowley, Abraham, 2, 145, 146.
Crevier, Histoire de PUniversite de
Paris, 44, 54, 59, 64, 77, 129,
130, 231.
Crichton, The Admirable, 247.
Cromwell, Thomas, 101.
Crossraguel Abbey, 187-189, 202.
DANIEL, PIERRE, letter of Buchanan
to, 331.
Dante, 138.
Darnley, 185, 186, 189, 193, 194,
196, 200, 204, 205, 209, 210, 285.
David I. of Scotland, 310, 311.
Defoe, 218.
Dejob, Vie de Muret, 126 n., 136 n.
De Jure Regni, 124, 197, 198, 255 ;
account of, 268-292.
Dennistouns, a noted family of the
Lennox, 6.
Descartes, 64.
De Sphaera, a poem of Buchanan,
159, 162-170.
Detectio, The, 201, 202 n., 208-215.
Diane de Poitiers, 151.
Dickson, Dr. Thomas, 202 n.
Dionysii, The, 199.
Divinity, Doctorate of, 29.
Dolet, Etienne, 212.
Domitian, 199.
Donald Bane, 310.
Douglas, Gavin, 33.
Drumikill, Buchanans of, 7.
Drummond of Hawthornden, 236,
237, 256 n.
Dryden, 2, 284, 326, 327, 328.
Dugast, Robert, 52, 78, 79.
Dumbarton, 11, 12, 27.
Dunbar, Gavin, Archbishop of Glas-
gow, 98.
Dunbar, William, 33, 90, 99, 186.
EDWARD i., 311.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 102,
140, 180, 211,216, 266.
Episcopacy, 268.
Epithalamion on marriage of Mary
Queen of Scots, 171-174.
Erasmus, 11, 16, 19, 25 n., 32, 39,
43, 44, 55, 68, 69, 73, 74, 88,
114, 187, 197, 212,227,276,356.
Estienne, Charles, 128.
Henri, 2, 143, 145, 159, 184,
335
Robert, 66, 145.
Etaples, Lefevre d', 18, 67, 68.
FENELON, ARCHBISHOP, 260, 261.
Ferrerius, Joannes, 134.
Fisher, Bishop, 71, 232.
Flaminio, Marcantonio, 142-145.
Fleming, Mary, 183.
Flodden, battle of, 36, 88, 319.
384
INDEX.
Fontaine, la, 165.
Fonteine, Lemagon de la, corre-
spondent of Buchanan, 262.
Fordun, the Scottish historian, 305,
308, 310.
Fracastorius, 163.
France, Buchanan's Address to, 152.
Francis i., 17, 22, 23, 51, 68, 69,
103, 104, 132, 151, 277 n.
Francis n., 82, 171, 176.
Franciscans, The, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96,
133.
Franciscanus, poem of Buchanan, 90,
91 n., 93, 94, 95, 96, 192, 203.
Francofjallia, 290.
Fratres Fraterrimi, poems of Buchan-
an, 74.
Froude, 7, 113.
GALIANI, ABBE, 99.
Galileo, 25 n., 165 n.
Gardiner, History of England, 253.
Gauf res, Claude Baduel et laJReforme
des Etudes au xvie siecle, 72 n.,
234.
Gaullieur, Ernest. See Guyenne,
College de.
Gelida, Joannes, 128.
Geneva, 137, 152, 234.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 309.
German " Nation " at University of
Paris, 24-27, 30, 31.
Gerson, Chancellor of University of
Paris, 274.
Glasgow, University of, 12, 13, 25,
41, 242, 243.
Goethe, 138.
Gouvea, Andr4 de, 105, 109, 110, 116,
117, 119, 123, 128, 130, 131, 132,
182.
Antoine de, 61.
Jacques de, 52, 59, 60, 63,
105.
Graf, Jacques Lefevre d" Staples, 18,
68.
Grammars, Latin, 65, 243.
Grammont, Charles de, Archbishop
of Bordeaux, 122, 123, 125.
Grant, Burgh Schools of Scotland,
12, 13.
Gray, the poet, 177 n.
Greek, the study of, 13, 17, 63, 64.
Gregory of Tours, 272.
Grisy, lands of, endowment of Scots
College in Paris, 48.
Groslot, Jerome, 244, 245.
Grotius, 2.
Grouchy, Nicolas, 111.
Guerente, Guillaume, 111, 124.
Guise, Duke of, 170.
Guises, The, 151.
Guyenne, College de, 105, 106, 108,
109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 116, 125
«., 132.
HADDON, WALTER, 140.
Hadrian, wall of, 309.
Hallam, 120, 140, 146, 147, 163,
165.
Hamilton, Archbishop, 229.
Patrick, 81.
Hamiltons, family of the, 8, 218,
219.
Hannay, James, 291 n.
Heine, Heinrich, 80, 103.
Henderson, Casket Letters, 207 n.,
213 n.
Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.,
125.
Henry n. of France, 151, 154, 170.
iv. of France, 262.
vni., 35, 84, 102, 320.
Henryson, Robert, Scottish poet, 74.
Hepburn, Prior, 227.
Heriots of Trabroun, 9, 10.
Agnes, mother of George
Buchanan, 9, 10, 11.
George, founder of Heriot's
Hospital, Edinburgh, 9, 10.
James, uncle of George Bucha-
nan, 13, 33.
Hessus, Eobanus, 141, 145.
H6pital, de 1', Chancellor of France,
153, 172, 175, 176, 203, 205,
206, 277, 278.
Horace, 147, 177, 178.
Hosack, Mary Stewart, 202 n.,
209 n.
Hotman, 290, 291.
Huguenots, the, 275, 278.
Humanism, 44, 45, 106, 118, 119,
236, 271, 272.
Humanists, 1, 16, 18, 19, 40, 65, 89.
Hume, David, 3, 328.
INNES, COSMO, 13w, 182.
Father, 298 n.
Inquisition, the, 133.
Irving, Dr. David, Memoirs of
Buchanan, 5, 112, 146, 172,
INDEX.
385
182, 237, 241, 244, 252, 270, 324,
353.
Isidore of Seville, 273.
Italy, scholars of, 16.
JAMES i. of Scotland, 288.
m., 288, 289.
iv., 317, 318, 319.
v., 82, 88, 92, 93, 94 100,
133, 321.
- vi., 124, 195, 196, 197, 200 ;
pupil of Buchanan, 250-261, 325,
326, 337.
Jesuits, the, 132, 133.
Jephthes, a drama of Buchanan, 34,
121.
John in. of Portugal, 130, 132, 133,
134.
John Baliol, 311.
of Salisbury, 273.
Johnson, Dr., 2, 3.
Johnston, Arthur, 147, 148, 149.
Jonas, Justus, 141.
Jonson, Ben, 256 n.
Jourdain, Excursions Historiques et
Philosophiques ct, travers le Moyen-
Age, 24, 31, 42, 53, 77, 126,
273.
KENNEDY, BISHOP, 42, 316, 317.
Killearn, birthplace of Buchanan, 4,
8, 11, 12, 14.
Killigrew, English resident in Scot-
land, 257, 258.
Kirk of Field, 194.
Knox, John, 3, 8, 44, 63, 81, 87, 90,
99, 141 n., 154, 181, 190, 191, 193,
195, 223, 234, 246, 253, 265 n.,
267, 277 n., 281, 282, 283, 292,
296, 307, 316, 317, 323, 335, 354,
355, 357.
LAING, DAVID, 92n., 186 n., 247 n.,
323 n, 353 n, 354 n.
Malcolm, 213, 214.
Languet, Hubert, 270, 342, 343,344.
Latinists of the sixteenth century,
26, 70, 146, 193.
Lee, Principal, 41, 241 n.
Leighton, Archbishop, 74.
Lemoine, College du Cardinal, 126,
127.
Lennox, the Kegent, 263, 264, 317,
320, 324, 334.
the clan of, 193.
Lennox, country of the, 104.
Lenormant, Geoffroi, founder of Ste.
Barbe, 50.
Leonora, Buchanan's poems to, 135,
139, 140.
Lesley, Bishop, 296.
Linacre, his Latin Grammar, 65, 66,
81.
Lisbon, 130, 134.
Livy, 180, 183.
Lloyd, Humphrey, 304.
Logic, Gavin, 227.
Louis xi., 220 n.
Loyola, Ignatius, 60, 62, 63, 87.
Luther, 19, 20, 43, 61, 68, 87, 141,
142, 228, 277, 278.
Lutheranism, 20, 100, 277.
Lutherans, 23, 61, 74.
Lyndsay, Sir David, 33, 87, 92, 96,
99, 318, 319.
Lyon, History of St. Andrews, 41,
42, 227, 228, 229.
MACALPINE, KENNETH, 308.
Macauslans, the, 8.
MachiaveUi, 276, 277, 299.
Mackenzie, Lives of Scottish Writers,
48, 259, 352.
Macmillans, the, 8.
M'Crie, Dr., 240, 242, 251, 281.
Macrinus, Salmonius, 145.
Maitland, Thomas, younger brother
of Secretary Maitland, 284-291.
of Lethington, 219, 220, 221,
237.
Maittaire, 145.
Major, John, his Latin style, 17 ;
an inmate of Ste. Barbe, 19;
quoted 25 n. ; sketch of his life
and opinions, 38-41, 42 ; his ill-
repute with the humanists, 43,
44 ; Knox and Buchanan his
pupils, 44, 45 n. ; Buchanan's dis-
like to his teaching, 46 ; re-
turns to Paris in 1525, 47 ; B.'s
possible obligation to him, 48 ;
Buchanan's epigram on him, 70,
71 ; his opinion on the ignorance
of the clergy, 87 n. ; 230, 274,
280, 281, 303, 305, 310, 311, 317.
Malcolm Canmore, 309, 310.
Malduin, Earl of Lennox, 6.
Mar, the Regent, 258, 264, 265,
317, 324, 334.
2 B
386
INDEX.
Mar, the young Earl of, pupil of
Buchanan, 258, 259.
Lady, 256, 258, 259.
Marche, La, College of, 60.
Margaret of Navarre, sister of
Francis i., 23, 68, 69, 100.
of Valois, sister of Henry n.,
155.
Mariana, 291 n.
Marianus Scotus, 309.
Marot, Clement, 154.
Marsilius of Padua, 274.
Martin, Histoire de France, 151,
152, 280.
Mary of England, 171.
Mary Queen of Scots, 3, 82 ; her
marriage with the Dauphin, 171 ;
175, 176 ; reads Livy with Bu-
chanan, 180, 181, 183 ; Buchan-
an's epigram to her, 184 ; her
gift to Buchanan, 187, 188, 189,
193-196 ; Buchanan's relations to
her after the murder of Darnley,
200-216, 242, 243, 279, 283, 285.
Mary of Lorraine, 321.
Masques, Latin, of Buchanan, 185.
Masson, Professor, 125, 146, 274.
Medea, the, translated into Latin
by Buchanan, 121, 155.
Medievalism, 230, 232.
Melanchthon, 43, 109, 138, 141,
142, 212, 232, 318.
Melville, Andrew, 227, 230, 236,
239, 240, 242, 267, 292, 349, 350,
357
Sir James, 181, 182, 256, 257,
265.
James, 230, 239, 240, 257,
258, 349, 350.
Melvin of Aberdeen, 146, 227.
Menteith, district of, 8, 11, 14, 34.
Metz, Buchanan's poem on the cap-
ture of, 151, 153.
Middle Ages, the, 15, 17, 21, 28,
44, 45, 51, 138, 230, 273, 282.
Milton, 2, 121, 125, 141, 165, 177,
212,218, 270, 275, 284, 291, 303.
Mitchell Wylie, name applied to
Maitland of Lethingtou, 277.
Moderatism, Scottish, 237.
Montaigne, 55, 56, 105, 111, 112,
113, 124, 125, 280.
Montaigu College, 19, 39, 43, 48,
58, 62, 70.
Montesquieu, 300.
Montmorency, Constable, 151, 279.
Monstrelet, the French historian,
315.
Moray, Bishop of, founder of Scots
College in Paris, 48.
the Regent, 91, 94, 191, 192,
193, 203-209, 227, 237, 247,
250, 263, 284, 296, 317.
More, Sir Thomas, 74, 212 n., 276,
278.
Moreri, 126 n.
Mornay, Duplessis, 262.
Morton, the Regent, 206, 207, 243,
263, 265, 266, 267, 316, 324.
Moss, or Mid-Leowen, lands of, birth-
place of Buchanan, 4, 10.
Mullinger, History of the University
of Cambridge,15, 27, 29, 232, 235.
Muret, Marc-Antoine, 111, 124, 126,
135 n., 136 n., 182.
Mysteries, medieval, 120.
" NATION," English, at University
of Paris, 76, 77.
German, at University of
Paris, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31, 76, 77,
78, 79.
" Nations," origin of, 76, 77.
Navarre, College of, 21 n., 50, 105.
Neaera, Buchanan's verses to, 139,
140.
Nero, 199, 288.
Netherlands, education in the, 12.
Nicolson, Bishop, 282, 304.
ORMISTON, 247.
Ovid, 138.
Oxford, University of, 16, 231, 232.
Paedagogia, 30.
Paedagogium of St. Andrews, 41, 42.
Paris, University of, 13, 15, 16, 17,
19-30, 41, 46, 47, 49, 52, 56, 58,
63, 64, 102, 104, 129, 130, 174 n.
Paris, Parliament of, 22, 68, 152.
Pascal, 165.
Patin, Guy, 146.
Pattison, Mark, 12, 32, 111, 253,
354.
Paul, St., his political teaching, 288.
Peasants' War, 277.
Petrarch, 138.
Pindar, 145.
Pinkerton, History of Scotland, 104,
298, 320.
INDEX.
387
Plays, Latin, 120.
Plutarch, 157.
Person, 3, 45 n.
Portugal, 126, 130, 131, 141, 150,
152, 153.
Portuguese in Ste. Barbe, 51, 52.
Pot, Philippe, 275.
Presbytery, 268.
Psalms, versions of the, 141-144.
Psalms, Buchanan's version of the,
4, 135, 144-149.
Ptolemy, his astronomical system,
168.
Pythagoras, 165, 167.
QUICHERAT, Histoire de Sainte-
Barbe, 19, 20, 40, 50, 60, 61, 62,
65, 70, 78, 109, 110, 132.
EABELAIS, 4, 43, 44n.,55, 76 n., 119.
Rainsford, Sir John, 101.
Randolph, Sir Thomas, 101, 180,
184, 224, 254, 294, 295, 297.
Ranke, 68, 278.
Rapicius, his version of the Psalms,
145.
Rebitte, Guillaume Bud6, 69, 74.
Reformers, the Scottish, 232, 238.
Renaissance, the, 4, 45, 135, 138,
152, 232, 236.
Richard of Bury, 15.
Rizzio, David, 186, 350 n.
Robert in., 314.
Robertson, Joseph, 185, 186, 194,
195.
Robertson, William, the historian,
328.
Rodriguez, Simon, 132.
Rogers, Daniel, 332, 333, 334.
Rome, Church of, 96, 97, 272.
, in Scotland, 86-89.
Ronsard, 182.
Ruddiman, 83 n., 159, 184, 214, 270,
293, 330.
Rutherfurd, Samuel, 291, 292.
Ruthven, Raid of, 351.
SACROBOSCO, JOANNES DE, 164, 166,
167, 169.
Sadoleto, Cardinal, 71, 72.
St. Andrews, University of, 12, 25,
41, 42, 48, 183, 193, 230, 231,
233, 237, 239, 241, 242.
Sainte-Barbe, College of, 19, 20,39,
50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 59, 62, 63,
64, 65, 66, 79, 81, 127.
Sainte-Beuve, 154, 205.
Saint-Gelais, Mellin de, 153-155.
St. Leonard, College of, St. An-
drews, 193, 196, 227, 228, 229.
St. Mary, College of, St. Andrews,
229, 230, 241.
St. Salvator, College of, St. An-
drews, 229, 240, 241, 247.
Saumaise (Salmasius), 2, 177.
Scaliger, Joseph, 69, 114 n., 115,
187, 356.
Julius Caesar, 113, 114.
Schmidt, Jean, 45, 234, 243.
Scholasticism, 16, 44, 45.
Scotland, Buchanan's History of,
293-328.
Scott, Sir Walter, 3, 86, 182, 327.
Scotus, Duns, 274.
Scrimgeour, Henry, letter of Bu-
chanan to, 334, 335.
Seebohm, Oxford Reformers, 231.
Scots College in Paris, 24, 25, 26,
47, 49, 50 n., 60.
Seneca, 275.
Servius Tullius, 199.
Severus, wall of, 309.
Sheriffhall, near Dalkeith, one of
the residences of Buchanan, 349.
Sibbald, Commentaries on the Life of
Buchanan, 193, 217.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 2, 342.
Sigongues, Monsieur de, letter of
Buchanan to, 336, 337.
Skene, F. J. H., 6 n.
W. F., 7 n., 8 n., 9 n., 297 n.
Smith, Adam, 3.
Somnium, a poem of Buchanan, 89,
90, 93.
Sorbonne, College of the, 21, 22, 68,
75, 107, 152, 155.
Spenser, Edmund, 102.
Standonck, Jean, Principal of Mon-
taigu College, 19, 39, 40 n.
Steven, Dr. W., History of George
Heriot's Hospital. 9 n., 10 n.
Stewart, Archbishop, natural son of
James iv., 42, 227.
Lord James,pupil of Buchanan,
85, 91.
Strasburg, Sturm's School at, 106,
226.
Sturm, Jean, 106, 116, 226, 227,
252, 291, 354.
388
INDEX.
Swift, Dean, 80.
Symonds, J. A., 142 n.
TALLEYRAND, 220.
Teyve, Jacques de, 127, 131.
Thou, de, 104, 113, 182, 328, 346.
Thuanus. See De Thou.
Thurot, De I' Organisation de VEn-
seignement dans PUniversite de
Paris au Moyen-Age, 21, 25, 26,
28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38, 49, 55.
Tibullus, 136.
Trabroun, 9.
Turnebe, Adrien, 126, 182, 356 n.
Tytler, History of Scotland, 36, 84,
92, 208, 283 n., 316 w.,320 w.,322.
UDALL, NICOLAS, 120.
Universities, Medieval, 230,
235.
Usher, Archbishop, 326.
233,
VALEE, BRIAND DE, 119.
Vans, John, the Aberdeen Gram-
marian, 26.
Verse, Latin, 31, 32, 136.
Vida, his poems on the Game of
Chess and on Silk-worms, 163.
Vinet, Elie, 105, 131, 164, 170,
345-348.
Virgil, 4, 57, 146, 147.
Volusenus, Florentius. See Wilson,
Florence.
WARDLAW, BISHOP, of St. Andrews,
41.
Wark Castle, 36.
Warton, Joseph, 141.
Warton, Thomas, -2.
Wauchope, Robert, 77, 79.
Wallace, William, Buchanan's cha-
racter of, 312.
William TIT., 14.
William the Lion, 311.
Wilson, Florence, 43, 70, 71-74.
Wittenberg, 232.
Wodrow, 268, 352.
Wolmar, Melchior, 137.
Wordsworth, 177, 178.
YOUNG, SIR PETER, 252, 256, 258,
2633 338.
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty,
at the Edinburgh University Press.
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